Christopher Goffard of the LA Times appears to have pulled together the most honest account of the final years of former sportswriter Mike Penner's haunted life were like when he struggled to find his identity as Christine Daniels.

It's a pretty fantastic story, even though it's heartbreaking, especially the part about the spiked Vanity Fair story, where Penner was photographed as "Christine" and broke down because she felt "ugly."

The photographer on that shoot, Robert Maxwell:

"I told her, 'No, you're beautiful,' " Maxwell said. "I was trying to say all the right things. How do you tell someone who looks like a man, 'You're a beautiful woman'? I don't know."

Seriously. Go read it. It'll stick with you.