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Most folks have probably never heard of LA Times sportswriter/journalist Mike Penner who changed genders to become Christine Penner and then a year or so later returned to his former gender and birth name. Over the weekend, it appears that Mike Penner committed suicide.

Here's how the transition was described in 2007:

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.

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.”