Back when I was a kid, there were a number of subjects one didn't discuss in polite company. Those subjects included but were not limited to:
--Alcoholism
--Abuse (spousal or child, physical or verbal)
--Drugs
--Religion
--Politics
--Affairs (either one's own or others)
--Sex (either gender or intercourse)
You could wrap most of those topics under the heading "gossip," and the taboo on gossip served a purpose; that is, it spared the listener from having to stop a person from blabbering about things one knew one shouldn't discuss. That people did, in fact, discuss these topics and others didn't make the rule less civil. That simply shows that people don't like to use self-restraint and would rather say whatever they think and feelings of the listener be damned.
That's the way I felt when I read about the sportswriter who is switching from being a man to being a woman.
I'm not going to discuss the rightness or wrongness of this situation (although I find it interesting that we don't know if Penner's "spouse" is a man or a woman, and if there are children involved). Such discussions aren't germaine to what I'm really thinking, which is why burden the rest of us with your secret?
I understand Penner telling his spouse, his employer, his minister, his friends. But why publish this information? Couldn't the L.A. Times just put a shirttail on the end of his column that says:
Times sports writer Christine Daniels used to be Mike Penner. Her column appears Mondays and Thursdays.
Would there be readers curious about this? Sure. But it wouldn't inflict his decision on the rest of the known universe because, frankly, it's nobody else's business.
One of the problems with the Jerry Springer-ization of the U.S. is that there is no longer anything private anymore. All information about a person is up for grabs, regardless of the effects such publication will have on that person and others. It's one thing to tell your employer you are getting divorced and that you might be a little stressed out for a while; it's another to write a column discussing the intimate details of your life. Especially when you aren't writing a personal column but rather, a sports column.
So, good luck, Mike/Christine in your new life. But please, keep it to yourself.
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