Mike Penner Obits: "The obituaries penned in the days following Penner’s death revealed a fault line among his public mourners. Some writers favored Penner’s sex assigned at birth—and his final public identity—by employing masculine pronouns in their obituaries. Others favored Daniels’ brief public persona as an out trans woman, and referred to the deceased as 'she' and 'her.'" In this photo, that's Penner on the left. [Washington City Paper via Romenesko] (69)
The son of Toronto Maple Leafs owner Brian Burke comes out of the closet. (ESPN)
LeBron, donning a large scarf and glasses Jay-Z might wear, was at the same DC party as nemesis DeShawn Stevenson. (DC Fab) Read the rest of this entry »
Caster Semenya: The teenage sprinter will keep her gold medal. And her gender test results, which were supposedly leaked two months ago, will remain private. Poor kid. This is the kind of story that should have hit the newswire on Friday at 4:59 pm, or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at 4:59 pm. [Bloomberg] (6)
Caster Semenya: The 18-year-old track star who is reportedly a man and a woman, could be the trigger that sparks World War III if Caster Semenya is ruled ineligible for further competition, according to South African Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile. "She may be a hermaphrodite, but so what? She is still a girl ... a young girl enjoying growing up." Time Magazine has a new photo of her; she looks more like a runner than a cover girl. [Time, What Makes a Woman a Woman?] (22)
Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old sprinter who made international headlines recently when she dominated at the World Championships, was forced to take a test to determine if she was a man or a woman. According to the Daily Mail, those results are in, and Caster Semenya is both a man and a woman. Read the rest of this entry »
Things to remember before sprinting for the comments section: She’s a teenager. When Semenya frames this photo and puts it on the wall, she must crop out the GAY MORMON GUY IN A MILLION headline in the upper right. Quotes from the article: “I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance … I see it all as a joke, it doesn’t upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself.” [Daily Mail]
Hermaphrodite in Auto Racing: This is lengthy (that's what she said), and you're likely to get lost in the constant changing of he/she, but it's an interesting read. "In 1994, Terri set forth with sex re-alignment surgery in Colorado. The only other cosmetic surgery needed was to increase her breast size. Doctors were amazed at her 5’6”, 117 lb., 34/24/34 frame and already womanly facial features." [Orlando Sentinel; buy the book here] (8)
Donaghy violated probation when he didn’t show up for work, and thus he was thrown back in jail. His lawyer says he had permission to be at a health club to exercise his knee. The halfway house says otherwise. (ESPN)
Caster Semenya, the Female Sprinter: Yeah, yeah, we've heard the dick jokes and we've seen her bulging abs. But as her family began to defend her yesterday, anyone else start to feel bad for the kid? At 18, she's been tagged: You're the girl who everyone thought was a dude. Here's the New York Times delicately trying to write around it the controversy: "...how sports officials are supposed to discern the fuzzy biological line between male and female ... Medical experts said assigning sex was hardly as easy as sizing someone up visually. Even rigorous examinations can result in ambiguous findings." The LA Times is putting a racial spin on the story: "Other black South Africans find something more sinister in the controversy erupting around Semenya: another example of demeaning Western attitudes toward black Africans, particularly women." (31)
Performance Enhancing Gender: The IAAF has ordered Women's 800m champion Caster Semenya to prove she is a woman. The South African, who beat the field by 2.45 seconds, will undergo a complex series of tests to determine her gender. How do you explain this away if she turns out to be female? Awwwkward.... (BBC Sport)(16)
Performance Enhancing Gender: The IAAF has ordered Women’s 800m champion Caster Semenya to prove she is a woman. The South African, who beat the field by 2.45 seconds, will undergo a complex series of tests to determine her gender. How do you explain this away if she turns out to be female? Awwwkward…. (BBC Sport)
Natalie Portman … really hoping this story is inaccurate or a joke … interesting read here, eager to see the reaction in the comments … Herbert on Detroit … recognize the name of the coach here? … that census worker in Kentucky wasn’t killed by illegals; it was a suicide … Washington Post closes US bureaus … political Wednesday: Global warming … missing boy spent 11 days wandering the subways … if you’re not a fan of bees, steer clear of this one …
