Athletic Distorter

Female sports teams are in the news these days, from Don Imus's verbal slam of the Rutgers basketball team to the ongoing discussion of whether Title IX requirements have ruined the possibility of male sports programs on many American high schools and colleges. But, a bit less noticed, is a major American newspaper's male sports columnist who, well, wants to throw like a girl.

Mike Penner, sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, announced in his column Thursday that he'll be taking a few weeks of vacation, after which he'll be returning in a "new incarnation," as he put it. Scratch that. He said that after the vacation she'll be returning. You see, Mike Penner will be Christine.

Mike told his readers that he has discovered he is transsexual, that his brain is "wired to be female." And so he plans to surgically arrange his anatomy to fit his brain wiring. He takes the opportunity to assure his readers that he is not a stereotype, a troubled candidate for the Jerry Springer Show.

Indeed, it is the reactions of Penner's colleagues, as relayed by him, that are perhaps the most indicative of the ongoing culture shift on such things. Penner writes:

To my everlasting amazement, friends and colleagues almost universally have been supportive and encouraging, often breaking the tension with good-natured doses of humor.

When I told my boss Randy Harvey, he leaned back in his chair, looked through his office window to scan the newsroom and mused, "Well, no one can ever say we don't have diversity on this staff."

Penner speaks of this almost as a conversion testimony. He contrasts "old Mike" with "new Christine" in a way reminiscent of the apostle Paul's language of the "old man" and the "new man.". Sadly, a surgical mutilation does not a woman make, and a "new incarnation" does not bring about a new creation. But it will take people who love Mike, not those who see him as a diversity statistic, to show him so.

Let's pray for Mike, even as he hides beneath the facade of Christine. He is not a freak, and he is not beyond redemption. He is confused, and deceived. Everyone is, apart from Christ, just about different things. Let's hope that old Mike, now old Christine, will one day, through the power of the Spirit and the blood of Christ, give way to the "new Mike."

Comments

[Pam]

This is becoming more common. Our local newspaper ran an piece about a candidate for city manager who has "known since childhood that he wasn't a boy". He is now in his 40s and will be interviewing for the job under his female name even though he will not yet have had his surgery (as my sister said "So he will be in drag"). The reason he gave was that he thought it appropriate to interview in the gender he will be if he is hired. I read this a day after finishing the current issue of "Salvo" and I admit I thought the magazine was maybe a little out there in their cultural assessment... not anymore! A quote from Regis Nicoll in Salvo2 "For only in a sequestered imagination could something as patently innate as gender be considered a malleable product of personal feelings, while sexual preference is considered an unalterable fact of life". (pg 43)

[Isamashii Yuubi (Courageous Grace)]

This (sadly) reminds me of several stories I've heard of botched circumcisions where a doctor decides it's in the boy's best interest to make him a girl. He/she then grows up knowing there's something very very wrong but can't do anything about it. Not quite the same situation, but it did come to mind.

[Judy Warner]

My cousin's daughter decided that she was a lesbian around age 17, and a couple of years later decided that she was really a boy. She thought about taking hormones and having her breasts removed, and hung out with people like herself. Her mother said she had seen the signs early and talked about inborn traits.

I've always thought it was more due to the dynamics of rebellion. Our parents were all socialists or communists, but otherwise quite conventional and high-achieving. Their children, my cousins and sibling and I, went through various degrees of rebellion according to the nature of our parents. In a family like ours the more rebellious parents produced the more rebellious children. But what that means is children who are obedient to their parents' wishes, which is not being rebellious: a nice little paradox of the left. This trans-sexual girl's parents had been particularly rebellious before they had children, living in a commune, selling drugs, being involved in various kinds of radicalism. As a child, she was a lovely girl, close to her parents and compliant. Her mother is rather controlling.

What is a child like that to do to fulfill the parental mandate to be rebellious? Her parents had already done everything possible within "normal" bounds. I suspect she unconsciously took one of the few paths of rebellion left to her to please her parents, or to shock them, but not out of an innate tendency. She moved to San Francisco, decided she wanted children, got married, had no children, got divorced, got sick, and is moving back to her parents' home. I don't think she has had much happiness through all of this.

I would bet that a great number of people who think themselves the "wrong" sex are operating under similar dynamics. Or different ones, but psychological rather than physical.

[Bobby Winters]

From the article: All I can say at this point is that I am now happier, more focused and more energized when I sit behind a keyboard. The wicked writer's block that used to reach up and torture me at some of the worst possible times imaginable has disappeared.

My therapist says this is what happens when a transsexual finally "integrates" and the ever-present white noise in the background dissipates.

That should come as good news to my editors: far fewer blown deadlines.

That's a reason to do it. Cure that writer's block.

Jiminy Christmas.

[Nick]

Judy,

Its not clear from your post, is this the same girl? If so did she go:
Lesbian->Trans-sexual->Heterosexual->ill?

[Judy Warner]

She went from normal to lesbian, then transsexual -- in dress only, no surgery or hormones, and she changed her name to a male one. When she got married I know she considered herself female but I'm not sure whether she was a lesbian or not. I understand she considers herself a female at this point. I feel terrible for her; can you imagine how miserable all this must be to live through?

[Francesca]

Perhaps Mike/Christine made a better choice than poor, tormented Ted Haggard? He presents an honest account of his struggle and I hope the operation cures his inner turmoil.

[David Gray]

>Perhaps Mike/Christine made a better choice than poor, tormented Ted Haggard? He presents an honest account of his struggle and I hope the operation cures his inner turmoil.

But Ted has said he is repentant. Is M/C?

[Francesca]

>>But Ted has said he is repentant. Is M/C?<<

Maybe he doesn't need to be.

[Art Deco]

Maybe he doesn't need to be.

You mean the sportswriter is a saint?

[Francesca]

>>Maybe he doesn't need to be.

You mean the sportswriter is a saint?<<

Once again, Catholic teachings on this issue are more nuanced than some might suppose.

See:
http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=599

[Bobby Winters]

>>>Once again, Catholic teachings on this issue are more nuanced than some might suppose. <<<<

The Vatican document's specific points include:

• An analysis of the moral licitness of "sex-change" operations. It concludes that the procedure could be morally acceptable in certain extreme cases if a medical probability exists that it will "cure" the patient's internal turmoil.
  
• But a source familiar with the document said recent medical evidence suggested that in a majority of cases the procedure increases the likelihood of depression and psychic disturbance.
  
• A provision giving religious superiors administrative authority to expel a member of the community who has undergone the procedure.
• In most cases of expulsion from religious life, the superior must conduct a trial.
  
• A recommendation of psychiatric treatment and spiritual counseling for transsexual priests. It suggests they can continue to exercise their ministry privately if it does not cause scandal.
  
• A conclusion that those who undergo sex-change operations are unsuitable candidates for priesthood and religious life because of mental instability.
  
• A conclusion that people who have undergone a sex-change operation cannot enter into a valid marriage, either because they would be marrying someone of the same sex in the eyes of the church or because their mental state casts doubt on their ability to make and uphold their marriage vows.
  
• An affirmation of the validity of marriages in which one partner later undergoes the procedure, unless a church tribunal determines that a transsexual disposition predated the wedding ceremony.
  

***
So is your point that the desire for a sex change is a result of mental illness rather than sin?

[Francesca]

>>So is your point that the desire for a sex change is a result of mental illness rather than sin?<<

No, my point is that Catholic teachings on this issue are nuanced. The procedure is not condemned as morally unacceptable in every case. So many think of Catholicism as a fundamentalist cult, but documents like this one suggest otherwise.

[Gene Godbold]

In general, I think it more likely that a person mistakes his sexual nature (or wishes it otherwise) than that God assigns the wrong chromosomes.

[Daniel C]

When I first heard about this my thoughts went to M/C's genetic make-up. Someone would shows me that s/he did not inheret the XY gene required for the male sex, and is a fluke of nature in which an otherwise genetic female developed male biology. Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, this poor soul has undergone a surgical procedure in order to "fix" what is pretty clearly a mental health issue.

BTW, there does seem to be evidence that individuals can develop as males while possessing the XX chromosomes.

If it were proven that a chromosomal fluke caused Mike Penner to develop as a male, when in every other way, genetically speaking, he was really made as a she, then would this alter anyone's perspective on this case?

[Daniel C]

"In general, I think it more likely that a person mistakes his sexual nature (or wishes it otherwise) than that God assigns the wrong chromosomes."

Since this kind of procedure is not something one takes on lightly (psychological testing, hormone treatments and other medications require more than a year (as I've been informed) and the surgical procedure itself takes the better part of another year), then something other than personnal desire has to come into play. My extremely brief search taught me that some individuals do possess XX chromosomes, but otherwise develop as a male. This has to make folks think twice about this particular issue.

[Judy Warner]

If there is no chromosomal issue, then I would compare this with people who feel a compelling need to have a limb amputated. The New York Times had an article about this disorder, now called body integrity identity disorder. From the article:

To Dr. First, the closest analogy was to gender identity disorder.

"When the first sex reassignment was done in the 1950's, it generated the same kind of horror" that voluntary amputation does now, Dr. First said. "Surgeons asked themselves, 'How can I do this thing to someone that's normal?' The dilemma of the surgeon being asked to amputate a healthy limb is similar."

Still, the analogy is imperfect. "It's one thing to say someone wants to go from male to female; they're both normal states," Dr. First said. "To want to go from a four-limbed person to an amputee feels more problematic. That idea doesn't compute to regular people."

But the analogy seems especially good in that this seems to be moving from being thought utterly bizarre, to being recognized in the popular culture, to being a subject of fascination, to becoming almost acceptable:

The condition is slowly making its way into popular culture. At the New York International Fringe Festival last summer, an award for best overall production went to "Armless," a play about a middle-aged suburbanite with the disorder. The playwright, Kyle Jarrow, said his goal was to explore "the line between gross and spooky and funny and poignant."

In November, an episode of "CSI: New York" featured a man with the disorder who bled to death after he tried to saw off his leg. And last month, a screening was held in the East Village of "Pretender's Dance," a short film by Tom Keefe about a young choreographer and her boyfriend who wanted amputation.

Dr. Smith, the Scottish surgeon who removed the legs of two men before his hospital forced him to stop, is trying to get the disorder formally recognized so that the amputations can be covered by the National Health Service.

"The Hippocratic oath says first do your patients no harm," he said in the film "Whole." But maybe the real harm, he said, is to refuse to treat such a patient, "leaving him in a state of permanent mental torment," when all it would take for him "to live a satisfied and happy life" would be to amputate.

Both of these states -- thinking oneself the wrong sex and thinking oneself in need of amputation -- are signs of deep problems. Yet our culture is so in love with the transgressive that people, including mental health professionals, increasingly find themselves reluctant to say that, lest they be thought insensitive, rigid, afraid of the other, or some other nonsensical description of being able to distinguish normal from abnormal. Is there a psychiatrist left who can utter the words "crazy as a bedbug"?

[Ethan Cordray]

Odd, too, that as the articles indicate some people seem to have enough faith in the power of medical procedure that they can think that and post-op subject is just as physically "normal" as a natural man or woman. Without going into any details, the results tend to come out a little jury-rigged.

[Gene Godbold]

There are folks with an XY genetic background who are females because the Y is not expressed. These people, of course, have a problem with gametogenesis and are sterile. (I've heard that the actress Jamie Lee Curtis is an example.)

There are also folks who are XXY and XXXY females. I have never heard of folks who manifest male traits with no Y chromosome and, as a half-assed geneticist, would be extremely skeptical of such claims. What I've read suggests that one needs the genes carried by the Y chromosome to be male.

[James A. Altena]

I once read a detailed article in the Chicago Tribune (some 15 years ago) about sex change surgery. It was absolutely stomach-churning.

Judy's last paragraph hit the nail on the head again.

Russell Moore wrote: "He is not a freak, and he is not beyond redemption. He is confused, and deceived."

75% right. Mike/Christine is indeed confused, deceived, and not beyond redemption. But he/she/it is most definitely a freak if this operation is performed.

As for the "nuanced Vatican view" -- this report has a certain formal standing but no official authority It is a recommendation, but it does not have the status or force of formal church teaching or doctrine. It is only a theologeumenon -- and, in my view, in certain particulars a very bad one.

[Gene Godbold]

In the case Daniel C points out (a 1984 Nature paper), it looks like a segment of the Y chromosome broke off and was grafted on to one of the X chromosomes (this sort of breaking and annealing isn't as weird as you might think--it is not uncommon in cancerours cells). I'd be interested if there were more recent examples with more stringent analyses. What would one use as search terms that wouldn't produce thousands of irrelevant papers?

[Bobby Winters]

.>>>Since this kind of procedure is not something one takes on lightly (psychological testing, hormone treatments and other medications require more than a year (as I've been informed) and the surgical procedure itself takes the better part of another year), then something other than personnal desire has to come into play.<<<

I've known one transexual. He was as crazy as a bedbug.

[Judy Warner]

Now if only we could get "as crazy as a bedbug" into the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual).

[Janet C.]

I haven't read this whole thread, so pershaps someone has already cited this article, but there is a good article on the topic on the First Things website here: http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=398&var_recherche=sex+change

AMDG, Janet

[Nick]

Let's go further James, there is no official paper in circulation at all. The link is to a summary which can't be authenticated. Francesca will have to dig harder to find something of more interest nor does the citing address her implied argument (that sex change operations are a-ok in reference to the story linked above).

For the benefit of those listening in, true sexual disorders in which there isn't a distinct sex are *incredibly* rare and when found are usually treated much earlier than someone who has already developed a career. Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonadal_dysgenesis

As has been noted the result is usually sterile which helps keep this negative mutation in a small segment of our population.

The cited story does not list any such condition. What is listed is the *fellows* poor confused feelings.

[Jenny Islander]

There are in fact disorders that turn an XX girl into an apparent boy with genital malformations, usually before birth. I have read that quite a few of these "boys" know that something is wrong, but have no idea what until they have a blood test.

[Francesca]

>>Francesca will have to dig harder to find something of more interest nor does the citing address her implied argument (that sex change operations are a-ok in reference to the story linked above).<<

Nick, please feel free to cite other sources. This is the only Catholic teaching I could find that relates to this specific issue.

[CV]

This article from First Things, by a distinguished professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, is very illuminating on this subject:

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=398

[Chris]

>>>I've known one transexual. He was as crazy as a bedbug.<<<

I'm gonna have to tuck that helpful statistic away for later reference! Are you a scientist? If so, you should publish a study on that one.

In regards to the discussions of genetics and chromosomes, there are XY females, XX males, XXY males, and other deviations from the XX, XY norms. These conditions are all well known and extensively documented. You can look these things up if you're "skeptical", as one person said.

As for transsexuals in general, I have some insight as I'm a female-to-male (FTM) transsexual myself. I tend to think that in most people, it's some sort of an inbred genetic trait, or birth defect, if you'd prefer to think about it that way. That's my view on so-called "primary transsexuals," at least.

Primary transsexuals are people who have felt "cross-gender" feelings since very early childhood. These are generally persistent throughout one's life. Young people often turn to alcohol or drug use (or other compulsive behaviors) in an attempt to block out those feelings. Depression is more or less the norm, since it's a very painful, confusing, and lonely state. Suicide is not uncommon, unfortunately.

Secondary transsexuals, on the other hand, are different. These people - primarily biological males over 40 - seem to go though life without much thought about their gender identity or real discomfort regarding these issues. Often their conviction that they are transsexual comes on pretty suddenly and is sometimes explained as having just been in denial or extremely deep repression of the fact their entire lives. The whole issue seems to overtake their entire lives. When this happens, they're often dead-set on transitioning completely as soon as humanly possible, and unfortunately, can often be somewhat blind to the feelings of those around them. My personal feeling is that in *some* of these cases (certainly not all), it's more of a mid-life crisis than anything else. I know I'm a terrible transperson to say that (lol), but I think it's true.

However, I'm no expert on secondary transsexuals, since I was a primary one. I first remember wanting to be a boy at about the age of 3. In preschool and kindergarten, I used to smuggle white T-shirts to school with me and change as soon as I could (I really like the Fonz and Sha-na-na at that point, what can I say). I remember desperately wanting boys' pants. And at one point, I claimed to all the other kids that I *was* a boy for several months. I don't think I ever made this claim to the teachers, since I knew they had my records and knew my full name. And I think that even at 4 and 5 years old, I knew that this was the sort of thing that would probably be considered wrong or weird or something. I used to wish and pray that when I woke up in the morning, my closet would be filled with boys' clothes. I dreamt about waking up as a boy, magically. I harbored the sort of delusion that only children can - that one day this error would work itself out, cause it just had to. I slowly realized that it just wasn't going to happen. My depression started at 7 years old. I tried to accept the reality of my situation and put it out of my mind. As I got older, I tried to write it off to "all kids feel like that at some point." The feelings were still there, I just tried to ignore them. If an angel had come down and said "You can be a male if you want to. Decide," it would have been a no-brainer. At 14, I got into the alcohol and drugs. I did the best denial I could, but the feelings just grew over the years. At around 18/19 years old, it stopped being something that I could block out of my head. I went to rehab at 18 and was sober for many years. Without the drinking to avoid thinking and feeling, I started having to look at it all. Eventually I started drinking again, and the mounting confusion and pain of my situation was a main reason for that.

I never believed that I would do anything about it (hormones, surgery, etc), because I thought it would devastate my family, hurt or alienate my friends, cause me serious humiliation and pain, and that I'd just be a freak in the end. I held onto that view until I was about 31, when I finally realized that if I *didn't* do anything about it, I was either going to go insane, sink into depression and never leave my house again, drink myself to death, or flat out kill myself. Or a combination or 2 or more of those!

It was somewhat easier but harder as well for me, because I always felt and acted male, and after junior high and some uncomfortable attempts at makeup, hair products and purses, I mostly stopped trying to keep up with the girls and just did my own thing.

I started to really study and explore the issue in depth, both online and within myself. I avoided support groups for years, because I didn't want to box myself in to a label of any sort or be influenced in the wrong direction by anyone. After years of thinking about it, soul-searching, and prayer (I'm a Christian), I finally decided that I needed to do the transition in order to treat this. I went through all the recommended steps, therapy and such, before starting hormones, which I finally did at 33. I used to wake up every morning and my predicament was one of my first thoughts. Now I wake up with hope. Things are changing, getting better, and I no longer avoid leaving the house or using a public bathroom. Hormones have not changed my personality, that's not their job. Transition is a physical process that changes your body to that of the opposite sex, to a point, and lets you live as the gender that you feel inside. A

s someone once put it, you can look at someone like me as "not a girl with a mental problem, but a boy with a physical problem." I am who I am inside. My body is a housing for my soul and brain. I'd rather change my body to match who I am inside than try to change who I am inside to match my body. When you look at it that way, for a transsexual that's happy with themselves and their personality, etc - why would they want to attempt to change themselves into someone else through psychotherapy? After a lot of thought, I now believe that transition is not a moral issue. I don't think it's any more wrong than a person blind or deaf from birth getting a surgery so that they can see or hear. That's how God made them, but no one would blink an eye at "fixing" that. Was God wrong? No. But if we can "fix it," we will.

I absolutely do not think that God "assigns the wrong chromosomes." I don't believe God made a mistake with me. Why did He make me this way? I don't know. Why are some people born with deformities? We can't know these things. What I tend to believe is that I was made as I am because there are things this experience has to teach me (like serious courage). Even more so, I believe that as a result of who I am and what I'm going through, I'll be able to touch the lives of some people that most of society just can't and maybe help some people. I've also mused at times that maybe the Lord gave me a choice before I was born, told me what the benefits and pitfalls of each would be, and maybe I chose this on my own. I won't know in this life.

The best I can do is try to be true to myself, respectful of others, and just be the best person I can be. I know I'll never be biologically male, but I can live with that. I just want to be a good man.

Regarding the Vatican document:

"It concludes that the procedure could be morally acceptable in certain extreme cases if a medical probability exists that it will "cure" the patient's internal turmoil."

Most real transsexuals would probably fit this standard. The "internal turmoil" or this is immense, and for many, transition truly appears to be the only rational option. Although it may appear insane to those who don't have this problem. I can understand how it would be pretty incomprehensible to them. But it's a daily, lifelong thing for us.

One last thing (finally, huh?): every study I've ever seen on the topic shows that the rates of regret after SRS are exceptionally low.

[Bobby Winters]

>>The whole issue seems to overtake their entire lives. When this happens, they're often dead-set on transitioning completely as soon as humanly possible, and unfortunately, can often be somewhat blind to the feelings of those around them.

Like I said, as crazy as a bed bug. Now you've upped my sample size to more than one, an entire strata in fact.

>>What I tend to believe is that I was made as I am because there are things this experience has to teach me (like serious courage). <<

What about the courage to be a woman?

[Judy Warner]

I think that's unkind, Bobby. Chris, have you had genetic testing done? Do you have one of those chromosomal deviations? If not, do you have a theory about why you are this way?