255:(MCC) and privately confessed to the Rev. Neil Thomas: "Don't you ever believe that I've given up being Christine." Rev. Thomas later stated, "I knew exactly what he meant. Everything about his body, everything about his fabric, everything that made him human was still screaming, that had been screaming for 40 years, that got to the point of Mike transitioning to Christine." Penner "hoped returning to Mike could possibly lead to reconciliation with Lisa," Rev. Thomas added. Penner "loved Lisa. There was no doubt about it." Penner's brother John also told LaCoe "he had never seen his brother happier than in the heyday of his life as Christine." Diana, a friend who Penner had met in a transgender support group said "Christine died of a broken heart. She wasn't confused about whether she was meant to be a woman. Any other reading of the situation is disrespectful to her memory."
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Penner. The same week, Penner covered a press conference with Paul
Oberjuerge, a writer for the San Bernardino County Sun, also in attendance. Oberjuerge mocked Penner's appearance in an article, stating "(e)xcept anyone paying any attention isn't going to be fooled — as some people are by veteran transvestites. Maybe this is cruel, but there were women in that room who were born women in body, as well as soul. And the difference between them and Christine was, in my mind, fairly stark. It seemed almost as we're all going along with someone's dress-up role-playing." Penner was deeply hurt over the comments, and a fan campaign succeeding in getting the Sun to remove the post.
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by Penner transitioning back. Penner tore up several notebooks he kept on transgender therapy, donated his clothes and jewelry, and ceased attempts to feminize himself. He then ordered friends to call him Mike again. Though it broke her heart, LaCoe didn't judge and helped her friend with the process.
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Penner wrote as
Christine Daniels from July 2007 until about March 2008; without elaboration, Penner resumed using Mike Penner in October 2008 as his byline. Penner moved in later that summer with transgender friend Amy LaCoe. LaCoe counseled Penner before his transition to Daniels and was conflicted
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Shortly after his 50th birthday, Penner/Daniels went to a studio of photographer Robert
Maxwell for a Vanity Fair piece. Transgender friends stated Maxwell had tried to sex Penner/Daniels up and pushed Penner/Daniels to pose provocatively. Traumatized, Penner/Daniels wrote a letter asking Vanity Fair
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His wife, Lisa
Dillman, submitted divorce papers on May 23, 2007, and said to Penner, "I don't even want to see you around the office unless I absolutely have to, and then I want to be as far away as possible. I don't want to be associated with it. I don't ever want to see you that way." That crushed
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I am a transsexual sportswriter. 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. ... When you reach the point when one gender causes heartache and unbearable discomfort, and the other brings more joy
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Penner was found dead in his Los
Angeles home on November 28, 2009, of an apparent suicide, a year to the day after his divorce with Dillman had been finalized. A funeral closed to media was dedicated to Mike Penner, transgender friends who'd known him were turned away at the door for not being on
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Penner repeatedly told friends his return to a male lifestyle was a last-ditch effort to reunite with
Dillman, though he knew the odds were slim. Before coming out publicly, having to return to his male persona when leaving safe trans-affirming spaces would leave him incredibly distressed. Friends
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had noticed Penner was quiet and kept to himself previously as a man, but showed more joy and energy as
Christine. Identifying as Mike again, Penner was "sullen, visibly depressed, and quiet." Later in 2008, Penner went to
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Later in his career, in addition to covering sports, Penner began writing about transsexual identity and the process of gender transition from an autobiographical perspective. The first such piece he wrote for the
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the guest list. Amy LaCoe was the sole transgender friend invited to the funeral. MCC had a public memorial for
Christine Daniels. Since 2010, MCC has annually distributed the Christine Daniels Scholarship.
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in 1983 as a staff writer for the paper's Orange County edition. Initially reporting on high school sports, Penner went on to cover a variety of national and international sporting events, including
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was an essay entitled "Old Mike, New
Christine", which appeared in the paper in April 2007. In it, he wrote about his lifelong struggle to come to terms with his transsexuality:
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blog "Woman in Progress." Daniels' writing became a source of hope for people across the country with gender-identity issues.
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and fulfillment than you ever imagined possible, it shouldn't take two tons of bricks to fall in order to know what to do.
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sportswriter Lisa Dillman although at the time of his death they were divorced.
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Mike Penner dies at 52; Los Angeles Times sportswriter
419:"Mike Penner, Christine Daniels: A Tragic Love Story"
572:"L.A. Times sports writer reveals he's transsexual"
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A writer's transformation makes the personal public
187:as a writer and sports editor. He then joined the
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514:Pieper, Lindsay Parks (March 2015).
332:Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2009
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638:, April 26, 2007. Also available
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417:Friess, Steve (August 19, 2010).
309:Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2007
646:Interview with Christine Daniels
385:. April 26, 2007. Archived from
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163:parents, Penner graduated from
606:. Gaysports.com. 27 April 2007
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532:10.1080/17430437.2013.854472
131:. Penner self-identified as
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633:"Old Mike, New Christine,"
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357:"Michael Daniel Penner"
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157:Inglewood, California
123:Michael Daniel Penner
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165:Western High School
79:, California, U.S.
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636:Los Angeles Times
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161:Russian Mennonite
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421:. LA Weekly
133:transsexual
77:Los Angeles
30:Mike Penner
656:Categories
425:October 6,
294:References
93:Occupation
58:California
46:1957-10-10
603:Pink News
550:144594618
495:April 28,
237:LA Times'
171:and from
147:in 2009.
54:Inglewood
610:25 April
588:25 April
561:ABC News
383:LA Times
363:June 26,
282:See also
155:Born in
101:Employer
169:Anaheim
145:suicide
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260:Times'
205:, and
203:tennis
113:Spouse
60:, U.S.
546:S2CID
220:Times
640:here
612:2019
590:2019
577:ESPN
565:here
536:ISBN
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471:2009
449:2009
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