Should We Remember Mike Penner or Christine Daniels?

Posted by Amanda Hess on Nov. 30, 2009, at 8:58 am

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2009/11/30/should-we-remember-mike-penner-or-christine-daniels/

On Saturday, Nov. 28, Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner was found dead in his Los Angeles home, the victim of an apparent suicide. Penner had been covering the sports beat for the LA Times since 1983. But the writer's public profile skyrocketed in April of 2007, when he came out as transgender, began living publicly as a woman, and changed his byline to Christine Daniels. The world lost Christine Daniels before it lost Penner: In 2008, Daniels quietly detransitioned back to Mike.

Penner's impermanent gender transition left obituary writers with an identity problem. Whose obituary to write: Mike Penner's or Christine Daniels'?