Sportswriter Mike Penner Dead At 52

Mike Penner, a veteran sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, was found dead at the age of 52 of an apparent suicide. Penner, who most recently wrote the "Totally Random" column, was perhaps most well-known for changing his gender status in 2007 and re-introducing himself to readers as Christine Daniels.

Changing one's gender is always met with apprehension in our culture, but within Penner's sports subculture, the process was likely even more difficult. Penner later took back his original name and resumed living life as a man a year later, which led to the unfortunate misconception that his decision was a thoughtless, ill-conceived one. In fact, Penner had taken on months of therapy and self-searching before making his decision.

It is impossible to say for sure what led Penner to take his own life, if that indeed was the case, but I'm worried that many will conclude that he was mentally unstable and point to his gender reassignment as a result. The wrong-headed extension of that is that those who choose to change sexes are necessarily mentally ill, which is certainly not the case. At the very least, I hope that those who do decide to play expert for a day and cast judgment can accept that their judgments are completely irrelevant.