Remembering Mike Penner

Today's Popnography blog on Out.com features a remembrance of Mike Penner, the Los Angeles Times sportswriter who died Saturday, an apparent suicide, at age 52.

Penner transitioned in 2007, took the name and byline Christine Daniels, and was photographed for the annual Out 100 list that same year. Out is owned by Here Media, parent company of The Advocate.

A year later, Penner began writing under his former byline again, though some readers criticized the newspaper earlier this week for its news coverage and obituary, which referred to the late journalist using his original name and masculine pronouns.

"My heart goes out to Christine, and all those who knew her. I am using feminine pronouns and her name Christine, because this individual was indeed a she," one LATimes.com reader wrote. "Though at the time of death, she was living in a male gender role, she was doing so only because the strain of transition is horrible."

Claire Noland, the Los Angeles Times' obituary editor, responded on the same comment thread earlier this week.

"Mike returned to using the Mike Penner byline more than a year ago, and every time I saw him in the office, I saw Mike, dressed as Mike. Not Christine, dressed as Christine," Noland wrote. "All I can tell you is that he was Mike at work, which is where I knew him. I'm not trying to be disrespectful."

In an e-mail to The Advocate, Noland noted that while she did notice many initial reader comments were critical, they likely originated from "people who were not regular readers of the Times and didn't realize that he had re-established himself as Mike in 2008. It's my understanding that the Readers Rep office has not received any letters from transgender readers questioning the issue."