I’ve only known one transgengered person in my life. Mike Penner/ Christine McDaniel, late of the L.A. Times.
It’s been a rough past few months for Anaheim Western Junior High School grads, where both my kids also went to school.
First Tiger Woods’ world comes crashing down around him, then Mike Penner commits suicide a few weeks later.
Mike, a gifted sportswriter for the L.A. Times suddenly ‘came out of the closet’ without warning to the readers in 2005 when his byline suddenly changed to Christine McDaniel and his old ‘thumbnail’ photo was of the new ‘woman.’
Oh, there was an explanatory box that ran with his/her stories for a few days, but that was it.
The rest of the sports department and newsroom excepted the shocking change well I heard, (at least to Christine’s face), but I can’t imagine the hell my friend must have gone through trying to interview those juiced-up steroid taking jocks after the games.
I guess that the harassment got too much for her to handle, and so bad that, about a year before she comitted suicide, she switched back and became Mike again.
A tragic story and the loss of a very gifted fellow human being.
I’ll miss Mike and his wonderful/witty stories.
Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba

You did a reasonably good job with this article until you got to the second to the last paragraph.  It is offensive to trans people, like myself, to refer to them by their former names and identities and to not use the pronouns that conform to their gender identities.  It is completely irrelevant to this or any other article about this issue what Amanda’s old name was.  Plus, Amanda is not “the former Mitchell Simpson, who now identifies himself [sic] as a female named Amanda.” Saying that she merely “identifies [her]self as a female named Amanda” implies that she isn’t “really” a woman and her name isn’t “really” Amanda and that, instead, she is just pretending to be a woman named Amanda and deceiving the public in the process.  Amanda IS a woman, regardless of what her past might have been, and her name IS Amanda, regardless of what her former name might have been.  Why does this matter? It matters because the beliefs that we aren’t really who we say we are and are just deceiving people are responsible for the discrimination, harassment, assaults and, yes, even murders of trans people that happen all too often in this country.  (Recent surveys indicate that anywhere from 50% to 97% of trans people have been the victim of employment discrimination because of their gender identity.  The risk of murder for a trans person, especially a trans woman of color is approximately 12 times that of the general population.)
Tucson has a large and active transgender community and the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA), now a part of WingSpan, is one of the oldest organizations in the country dedicated to supporting and advocating for the rights of trans people.   Before you write another article on trans issues, I suggest you contact Alison Davison, the coordinator of SAGA.  I’m sure she would be happy to talk with you, to suggest others you might want to talk to and provide you with other resources.  You can learn about SAGA and find how to contact Alison here:  http://www.sagatucson.org/.
In addition, I suggest you read the media guide prepared by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamantion (GLAAD) on transgender terminology and reporting. You can find the media guide here:  http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=376.  It contains much useful information for anyone who wants to write about trans people and the issues we face.
If you would like, I’d be happy to talk to you, as well.  You can contact me through my email address, which you now have.

Ferraribubba – I live in a state (actually, territory) where they stopped putting sex on the driver’s license long ago.
Go by my (non-US) birth certificate, and it says “boy”.  Go by my passport, or immigration record,  and it says “female”.
If I enter the mainland USA, I could easily be refused entry, and put in an immigration holding area, due to the inconsistency. With other women, if I’m lucky. If not… I’d try to kill myself as soon as possible, of course.  Few survive the experience, even if they don’t suicide.
Having been in Vice, no doubt you’d know plenty of teenage TS girls. So many are ejected from home by their parents, and survival sex work is one of the few avenues open to them. When you’re 13, and need $50 a week for hormones just to look normal, and $30,000 for the surgery – and are living on the street – it’s not quite universal, but close.
Maybe 1 in 8 survive to age 20. If they’re lucky, a pimp will pay for the boob job and hormones, but not usually for the surgery. Get that, and their value goes way down, he’d lose his investment. So they’re kept on till they’re used up, then expended on someone with a taste for snuff scenarios.
Not just teens though. I know a few former CEOs, engineers, bankers, who after they transitioned, lost all their assets, became unemployable, and oddly enough, trans women often find bureaucratic difficulties getting any relief. Even homeless shelters refuse them.
A friend of mine, ex-Marine, froze to death last year on the steps of a church in Texas for this reason. She’d just sung “Silent Night” to the council a few hours before.
You know that the clear-up rate of homicides of trans women is less than 30%? Compared to 70%+ of the general population? I’m sure you’ve seen your share. “NHI” right? No Humans Involved? Trouble is, it’s true. After years of treatment like that, they’re often sociopathic.
There but for the grace of God, go I.
I try to help them. I’m really glad I’m not a Vice cop, that would really be the pits. Almost as bad as a cop investigating child abuse. That would really corrode the soul.
Oh, of I’m ever arrested, then while being held before trial, I’d be put in the special block. No windows, allowed out for a shower once in 3 days, no books, playing cards, writing implements, no privileges… a gal in Virginia had 4 months of that before pleading guilty to whatever they charged her with.  She would have confessed to assassinating JFK if they wanted. Just to get out into a normal prison. But they ignored the Judge’s orders, and kept her in solitary afterwards for a few more months. Now she’s in the hospital wing, quite, quite insane and unresponsive.