DANIELS NOT SURE ABOUT SURGERY OR SEX ORIENTATION: LOS ANGELES TIMES transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels spoke to Steve Mason and John Ireland, hosts of KSPN-AM’s “Big Show”, yesterday and she addressed some questions most of us have about her transition from a male Mike Penner to a female Christine Daniels.

Three brief responses from Daniels from the interview (with audio links from KSPN-AM):

1) On if she is going to have surgery as part of her gender reassignment: “Nowhere did I say I was having surgery. The term ‘transition’ is not synonymous with surgery. Transition is defined as living and working full-time in your preferred gender. And that could mean surgery it or may not mean surgery. It usually means hormones. It certain means electrolysis.” (audio clip)

2) On whether she is attracted to men or women: “I don’t know yet. The needle’s kind of moving. Gender identity and sexual orientation are totally different things and I have trans friends who’ve gone through the whole transition process and they go into it attracted to women. Then they go through the hormones and surgery and they’re still attracted to women.” (audio clip)

3) On when she knew he was meant to be a female: “When I was four or five, I knew I was different and I was envious of girls and thought I would like to be one. At the same time I just felt very uncomfortable in the male role and was very shy, extremely shy. I didn’t like to fight and wasn’t really interested in sports until I was 11.” (audio clip)

In all three interviews Daniels has conducted on radio, she has not been asked about her wife, L.A. Times sportswriter Lisa Dillman. The two are divorcing and SbB has learned that Daniels will only appear on shows that agree not to ask about her marriage to Dillman and their pending divorce.

DANIELS MIGHT GUEST ON LARRY KING; SCORE BOOK DEAL: LOS ANGELES TIMES transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels, who is likely to appear on Larry King (and may have a book in the works), polished up her public relations act last weekend on radio, appearing on KLAC-AM with Lee Hamilton.

My favorite part of the interview was Hacksaw saying goodbye at the end of the visit:

“Thank you, sir“.

You can also listen to Daniels’ interview on Sports Byline last Friday night by visiting the Wizard of Odds website.

The interview I want to hear: The wife of Daniels (the former Mike Penner), Lisa Dillman. Dillman and Daniels are divorcing and she refused to talk about her during the appearances (how confusing is that?).

PHOTO OF TRANSSEXUAL SPORTSWRITER DANIELS POSTED: The first public photo of transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels (formerly Mike Penner) has been posted on the LOS ANGELES TIMES website:

The photo appears as part of Daniels’ blog called “Woman in Progress.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES sports staffer Jay Christiensen, who is also a host on Sports Byline’s nationally syndicated Friday night programming, will be the first person to publicly interview Daniels since her official transformation from Mike Penner - at 11:30PM PT tonight.

The LOS ANGELES TIMES also reports today that Lee Hamilton will air an interview with Daniels on his Sunday show on KLAC-AM.

More SbB Coverage of Mike Penner/Christine Daniels transformation:

• FRESHEN UP THAT EDITORIAL LAT STAFF LISTING!
• BEFORE MS. CHRISTINE DANIELS, ‘TWAS MR. PENNER
• TRANSSEXUAL FOLLOWUP BANISHED TO BIZ SECTION?!
• DANIELS COUNSELED BY TRANSSEXUAL SPORTSWRITER
• LAT SPORTSWRITER ADMITS TO BEING TRANSSEXUAL

TIMES STAFFER SCORES FIRST DANIELS LIVE RADIO VISIT: LOS ANGELES TIMES sports staffer Jay Christiansen, who is also a host on Sports Byline’s nationally syndicated Friday night programming, will be the first person to publicly interview transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels since her official transformation from Mike Penner - at 11:30PM PT.

The LOS ANGELES TIMES also reports today that Lee Hamilton will air an interview with Daniels on his Sunday show on KLAC-AM.

More SbB Coverage of Mike Penner/Christine Daniels transformation:
• FRESHEN UP THAT EDITORIAL LAT STAFF LISTING!
• BEFORE MS. CHRISTINE DANIELS, ‘TWAS MR. PENNER
• TRANSSEXUAL FOLLOWUP BANISHED TO BIZ SECTION?!
• DANIELS COUNSELED BY TRANSSEXUAL SPORTSWRITER
• LAT SPORTSWRITER ADMITS TO BEING TRANSSEXUAL

TIME TO FRESHEN UP THAT EDITORIAL LAT STAFF LISTING! Despite LOS ANGELES TIMES sportswriter Mike Penner last week admitting to being a transsexual and officially changing his public name to Christine Daniels, the newspaper has yet to recognize the new byline:

The pink arrow denotes Penner, the blue arrow points to LAT sportswriter Lisa Dillman, who was married to Penner/Daniels and has now filed for a divorce.

More SbB Penner/Daniels coverage:
• BEFORE MS. CHRISTINE DANIELS, ‘TWAS MIKE PENNER
• TRANSSEXUAL FOLLOWUP BANISHED TO BIZ SECTION?!
• DANIELS COUNSELED BY TRANSSEXUAL SPORTSWRITER
• LAT SPORTSWRITER ADMITS TO BEING TRANSSEXUAL

BEFORE MS. CHRISTINE DANIELS, ‘TWAS MR. MIKE PENNER: A photo of LOS ANGELES TIMES transsexual sportswriter Mike Penner, before his transformation to Christine Daniels:

Mike Penner/Christine Daniels Updates:
• TRANSSEXUAL FOLLOWUP BANISHED TO BIZ SECTION?!
• DANIELS COUNSELED BY TRANSSEXUAL SPORTSWRITER
• LAT SPORTSWRITER ADMITS TO BEING TRANSSEXUAL

LAT TRANSSEXUAL FOLLOWUP BANISHED TO BIZ SECTION?! LOS ANGELES TIMES reporter James Rainey conducted a Thursday interview with transsexual sportswriter Mike Penner, who now is known as “Christine Daniels”.

The paper’s website noted the interview (which according to LAT website sources is BY FAR (!) the most-viewed LAT piece this calendar year) on the front page, but for some *strange* reason, the Q & A was completely ignored by the website’s sports section - instead bizarrely banished to the fourth lead in the business section.

Rainey describes Daniels now as “a tall woman, with long, strawberry blond hair (a wig), light makeup, muted lipstick and a trio of bracelets on one wrist.”

Rainey also reports of Daniels: “She will be writing a blog about Southern California sports. Latimes.com also plans to give Daniels space to write about the experience of a gender transformation, under the tentative heading, ‘Woman in Progress.’”

Since Daniels long ago stopped covering sports events as a working media member and writes her Morning Briefing column from her home, she began dressing as a woman full-time beginning in January - and has apparently been going out in public as a woman for the past couple years.

With that in mind, it’s amazing to note that, according to multiple SbB sources, Daniels only recently began divorce proceedings with her former wife Lisa Dillman, who is also a Times reporter.

Daniels also would not reveal to Times reporter Rainey what her sexual orientation was and/or if she is undergoing gender reassignment surgery - claiming that “it was ‘too early’ and ‘fairly private’ for her to say publicly what she might do.”

MIKE PENNER/CHRISTINE DANIELS UPDATES:

• The LOS ANGELES TIMES has a comments page set up for people who want to weigh in on Mike Penner/Christine Daniels’ transsexual admission today.

As of 3pm PT, there are around 500 comments and in the later posts, there are numerous references to earlier negative comments - most of which were apparently deleted by LAT moderators.

• Penner/Daniels had been married to fellow Times sportswriter Lisa Dillman. The two are now divorcing.

• An LAT source tells SbB that Penner/Daniels had not been seen in the Times offices for months. He works out of his house and writes the Morning Briefing column based on sources (web, wire, radio, TV) that don’t require reporting. Penner/Daniels hasn’t covered a beat in years, so he doesn’t have any interaction with athletes or sports figures of any import - nor does he now attend games as a working media member.

• The media reaction I’ve heard, seen and read today has been 100% supportive except on message boards and comment areas where posters can hide behind a cloak of anonymity (which is one of the reasons I don’t run comments on SbB).

• Penner/Daniels isn’t the first openly-out transsexual sportswriter, Christina Kahrl (formerly Chris), is the Managing Editor for the online sports site “Baseball Prospectus”.

She has a piece today about Penner/Daniels which indicates that she had been counseling him/her for some time before the announcement today. Kahrl also writes that the reaction to her transformation has been nothing but positive from her colleagues.

• Read my earlier post about how the Times buried Penner/Daniels’ piece in the sports section, yet trumpeted it on the front page.

LA TIMES SPORTSWRITER ADMITS TO BEING TRANSSEXUAL: Longtime LOS ANGELES TIMES sportswriter Mike Penner has an announcement to make today.

You can call now call him “Christine“.

Penner announced in the newspaper Thursday that he is a transsexual and “is taking a few weeks’ vacation” to complete his gender reassignment therapy “and when I return, I will come back in yet another incarnation. … As Christine.”

Penner notes that he will continue his work at the paper and change his byline to “Christine Daniels“.

Much more interesting (at least to me) is the way the newspaper handled the story on its website. On the front page (above), Penner’s admission was the only sports-related story.

But in the sports section of the site, Penner’s piece was buried, with his column the fourth story down the sports page (below an Anaheim Ducks game recap?!).

UPDATE: As noted by Deadspin and SportsJournalists.com, Penner was married to fellow Times sportswriter Lisa Dillman. SbB has learned they are now getting a divorce (I know, not exactly a newsbreaker).