Some people like to spend their well deserved vacation time traveling the country or world, others like to catch up with their world outside of work, and lots of folks like to just take it easy and eat Fritos on the couch for hours on end. But if you’re sports writer Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times you spend your days off in a hospital undergoing serious surgery to transform yourself from Mike to Christine. Yup, Penner’s a transsexual and he came out to the world in an article this morning.
During my 23 years with The Times’ sports department, I have held a wide variety of roles and titles. Tennis writer. Angels beat reporter. Olympics writer. Essayist. Sports media critic. NFL columnist. Recent keeper of the Morning Briefing flame.
Today I leave for a few weeks’ vacation, and when I return, I will come back in yet another incarnation.
As Christine.
Well, that’s one way to bust down the door of that closet he’s been living in. Knowing the type of society we live in today, we’re pretty sure that this decision is going to be met with some serious hostility from some typical testosterone driven, meathead sports fans. But personally, we prefer the comical reaction that Penner’s boss gave after hearing the news for the first time.
Links:
[LATimes.com]: Old Mike, new Christine
One reply on “Do you like your sports news with or without nuts?”
hah — I love the part in his article where he says his friend thought he said “trainspotting” and he was a heroin addict.
I would rather a friend be transsexual than a heroin addict – heroin addicts tend to steal your money.
Anyway, good luck to Mike/Christine. After a while, I don’t think anyone will even remember.