Transgender Sportswriter Found Dead In Her Apartment, Authorities Suspect Suicide

LGBT, NewsBites, Sports — By Speak Equal on November 28, 2009 at 3:25 pm

Christine Daniels, veteran sportswriter for the LA Times, was found dead in her apartment today. Police reports cite the death as suicide. She was 52.

In 2007, Ms. Daniels made headlines, when she announced she was transgender. She transitioned openly, rejected her former name, Mike Penner, but continued to write for the LA Times. Several co-workers were supportive of her transition.

“He was one of the most talented writers I’ve ever worked with,” said Times Sports Editor Mike James, adding that Penner covered numerous beats including the National Football League and sports media during his more than two-decade-long career at the paper.

“He was a gentle man, a kind man,” James said. “It’s just a tragedy.”

Penner garnered much support and some criticism when he announced he was a “transsexual sportswriter.”

“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,” he wrote. “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. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them.”

Penner ended up blogging about his transition and later wrote a Times sports blog. In 2008, he began using the “Mike Penner” byline again.

The Times will have a full obituary soon.

Tags: Christine Daniels, Education, GLBT, Inclusion, LA Times, LGBT, Suicide, transgender, transsexual