Thursday, August 16, 2007
Sportswriter Embarks on New Life as a Woman
Day to Day, August 15, 2007 · Three months ago, Mike Penner was a longtime sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Then he wrote a dramatic goodbye column and disappeared for several weeks.
"I am a transsexual sportswriter," Penner wrote. "It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them."
Now Penner is back on the beat, as a she. With a new name and a new gender, Christine Daniels now covers sports and her own gender transition for The Los Angeles Times Web site. She tells Madeleine Brand about the experience, personally and professionally, of her new identity.
What was the reaction to [the column announcing your gender transition]?
[Chuckles] Well, I'm laughing because the perceived reaction, or the reaction I was warned about, was 180. I don't even know if you can get any more than 180 degrees different than the actual reaction. But transitioning as a Los Angeles Times sportswriter — the concept kept me closeted, kept me from doing it for several years. I just couldn't fathom it. And even 10 days before that column ran, I was considering quitting the Times. I had talked to two editors, or at least the sports department. I talked to two editors within the Times about transferring to different sections.
It became known in the transgender community that there was a high-profile coming-out about to happen, and a lot of the leaders in the transgender community got in touch with me, and I was told to prepare for the absolute worst. [They said,] 'You should have a friend come in and screen e-mails and phone calls.' And I had that set up. 'Do not listen to the radio. Do not watch TV. Certainly, do not go on the Internet on chat rooms.' And I was told to stay away from the office because they could have protests. I was so freaked out, I just — I was almost in the fetal position the whole day before.
I filed my column about a week before it ran, and it moved up through the channels and we kind of debated a little bit where it should run. I wanted it in the back pages ... in the classifieds, you know.
Buried? You wanted to bury it?
Buried. I didn't want to run it. I didn't want it. I wanted to do this privately, and it was impossible because of my byline. And my sports editor, Randy Harvey — Randy and our editors said, 'Well, because of the byline change, we need to run an explanatory piece about it, maybe have another columnist write about it.' We decided no, if it has to be written, I want to write my story. And it hit the Internet probably 11 or midnight. I tried to sleep and couldn't. And so I was in front of my computer at home, and I started seeing e-mails from co-workers from different departments. And it was all supportive, and I said, well, that makes me feel good. But these are friendly people, these are colleagues. The real test will be when it hits the public.
I tried to go back to bed and couldn't. I remember I got up around 1:30 and sat back, and on my computer screen at 1:46 the first e-mail from a reader came, and ... the subject line was 'You go, girl!' By about 6 or 7 [o'clock] L.A. time, I was getting one e-mail a minute. By 5 or 6 o'clock that evening, I had 538 e-mails, and two were negative. And I thought this could have been the worst day of my life, the worst day of my career. I didn't even know if I was going to get through it. And as it turned out, it was one of the best days I've ever had. . . .
You may not know this but all nonliving things have a gender**
*Ziploc Bags* are Male, because they hold everything
*Copiers* are Female, because once turned off, it
*A Tire* is Male, because it goes bald and it's often
*A Hot Air Balloon is Male*, because, to get it to go
*Sponges* are Female, because they're soft,
*A Web Page* is Female, because it's always getting
*A Subway* is Male, because it uses the same old
*An Hourglass* is Female, because over time, the
*A Hammer* is Male , because it hasn't changed much
*A Remote Control* is Female. Ha! You thought it'd
______________________________
**Thanks to Jack Drescher, MD (NYC) for bringing this to my attention.
India: Transgender fights all odds to become 'top grade' artiste
CHENNAI: When Bharatnatyam exponent Narthaki Nataraj completes yet another enthralling performance, the audience in the prestigious 'Narada Gana Sabha' here gives her a standing ovation -- not a mean achievement for a transgender ostracised and ridiculed by the society.
Winner of the state Government's 'Kalaimamani' title this year and accorded the status of 'top grade' artiste by Doordarshan, Nataraj has scripted several success stories but not before overcoming many a hurdle.
Born as a fifth 'son' in a lower middle class family at Anupadi in the southern district of Madurai, Nataraj became aware of the femininity in himself at a very young age.
Nataraj's family came in for a rude shock when the child started dressing up and conducting like a woman. The child, who was thrashed, abused and isolated by family members and neighbours, found solace in the company of a classmate, Sakthi Bhaskar, who was also undergoing a similar transformation.
An innate passion for dance in Nataraj was kindled after watching the films of danseus-actors Vyjayanthimala and Padmini in a village theatre. Ever since, it became 'her' burning desire to master the art.
"I considered dance as a medium to express my femininity. I used to imagine myself as Padmini and imitate her movements. Fearing that people would ridicule me, I used to dance at secluded places with my friend Sakthi being my only audience. I had even practised in a graveyard," she recalls.
With Nataraj's parents considering her physical condition an affront to the family's prestige, she walked out of the house at the age of 16. . . .
Katastrophe
The 27-year-old native of the San Francisco Bay Area says that even today media images are dominated by ''Jerry Springer'' stereotypes and reports of the murders of transgender women.
''I think that it really sends a message to somebody who's coming out,'' he says. ''It's hard to imagine what your adult life will look like.''
 Katastrophe |
To deal with that struggle, Katastrophe turned to music and poetry at 17, and quickly found himself involved with San Francisco's youth-poetry scene.
Today, Katastrophe is working on his third album, which will continue to blend ''emo,'' pop and hip hop with lyrics that send a message of ''positivity and hope.'' With previous albums, that message has garnered the attention of transgender fans around the country, he says, who e-mail him regularly from places he would have never expected, such as Nebraska.
''I've gotten to see how much the world has changed in the past 10 years.''
But there is still work to be done, he adds, even within the GLBT community. Take the title of Katastrophe's current album, Fault, Lies, and Faultlines. It stems from the confusion he felt about his place in the community, earlier in his career.
''If you're gay, your place is never questioned,'' he says, ''but as a trans person -- especially being a man that dates women -- for all intents and purposes, I'm a straight man in a queer community.''
It's a topic that came up when Katastrophe was about to perform at a previous Homo-A-Go-Go, an annual four-day music and film festival in Olympia, Wash. It was there that he says a few people questioned whether he should ''be able to play during the event at all.''
''It really influenced the content of my second CD, so that's why I called it Fault, Lies, and Faultlines,'' he says. ''It's about where we draw lines, who's to blame, and what is just bullshit.''
Another outlet of self-expression is his skin.
The artist currently has 11 tattoos, mostly words, including ''Hope'' on his neck, ''Tender-hearted'' across his chest and ''Heavy-Handed'' on his arm. Of Greek and Italian descent, Katastrophe was 18 when he got his first tattoo, the word ''Voice'' in Greek on his right shoulder.
''I'm a performer and I use lyrics and text as my way of communicating everything...to the world,'' he says. ''Everyone has a voice and voicing your life to others is the most important part of being alive.''
Katastrophe performs on Thursday, Aug. 16, at 8:30 p.m.
