There she was, at famed Fenway Park, along with a capacity crowd of 38,447 fans, as the host Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 on Oct. 30, marking the first time since 1918 that the World Series was clinched by the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
And Christina Kahrl was working her first World Series, on site, as MLB Editor & SweetSpot blog contributor, ESPN.com .
Before the first pitch was throw that evening, on what proved to be final day of the 2013 baseball season, former Chicago White Sox player and manager Ozzie Guillen asked Kahrl if she was having fun.
Kahrl smiled, ear to ear.
"I told him I was like a kid enjoying a week's worth of Christmases," she said. "I couldn't help but be enthusiastic over the honor of getting to be there [at the World Series]."
Covering the 2013 Fall Classic was "pretty close to perfect," she said.
"When I helped found Baseball Prospectus in 1996, I had no idea that this was where my career would take me," Kahrl said. "Most of my responsibilities with ESPN.com are editorial and managerial these days, so getting to do my first bit of locker-room reportage for the Series after Game 5 in St. Louis was a particular thrill. I was coming back upstairs from a glum Cardinals' locker room alongside John Perrotto, a former Baseball Prospectus colleague and longtime Pittsburgh sports columnist who I'm especially grateful to for his advocacy for my inclusion in the Baseball Writers Association of America in 2008. Giddy as I was, I could not help but thank him again for his help in putting me there, in that moment, at that game, in the World Series. I carry a debt to the men and women whose readiness to work with me and vouch for me as a professional helped put me there, and their everyday brand of courage provides a lesson to other employers who are long since overdue to get with the program."
Kahrl, 46, who lives in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, is a transsexual and bisexual. She is partnered with Charles Mae Wanamaker, and they have been together since May, 2009.
Her sexual orientation has never been discussed with a major league player, which does not surprise her.
"Folks might be surprised by the lack of curiosity among the players, but then again, I've never run into anything other than professional courtesy for what I am: A necessary evil, yet another reporter pestering them as they get ready for, or come down from, a day at the office," she said. "Players are busy and have a job to do. We talk about baseball, and that's something we're all interested in. If the day ever comes when one of the guys asks, I'm not worried about it; I'm an open book, and I figure anyone asking is trying to learn, [and] I'd encourage that."
Kahrl is convinced Major League Baseball is ready for an openly gay active player, as the sport has not seen or heard from a gay player since Billy Bean came out after retiring in 1999, four years after retiring.
"We can quibble about how it might be better if he was in one market or another, playing for one particular leadership team or ownership group or another, but in the broad strokes, players already know there are gay players, and have already said they wouldn't have a problem with a gay teammate being out," Kahrl said. "The real challenge is how effective the industry and the media respond; I'm more worried about the media freak-out to follow, but here I believe that GLAAD is going to be among those responsible for making sure it turns out for the better."
Kahrl predicted that, by 2016, an active major league will come out, on his own accord—and it will be shortly after someone else already came out in pro football and hockey, she said.
Kahrl, days after returning to Chicago from the World Series, was among five new members elected to the Board of Directors for GLAAD, the national LGBT media advocacy organization. Joining Kahrl is Vonzell Brown, Thad Florence, Lana Moore and Anthony Watson. Also on Nov. 8, it was announced that Jennifer Finney Boylan and Steve Warren were named co-chairs of GLAAD's national Board of Directors.
Kahrl is certainly one of GLAAD's loudest proponents for the trans community.
"Joining GLAAD's board brings home to me the challenges that confront LGBT advocacy across the country as we move through and beyond our long-awaited victories on marriage," Kahrl said. "Marriage is one social convention, long taken for granted by the majority, that we're finally getting extended to the full spread of Americans. But with that change also comes more general recognition that the issues and challenges that confront the transgender community cannot wait any longer.
"Basic elements of trans folks' safety and freedom to enjoy the full benefit of their birthrights as human beings can no longer be left on anyone's backburner."
Kahrl added: "It's time to help educate folks about the fact that trans folks are already in the mainstream, and lend some realness to how those lives are led instead of letting transgender people get too broadly reduced to mischaracterizations as either entertainers or criminals. And to lend a dose of reality to so many of the issues with which we're confronted, usually by people who didn't notice we've been here all along. We also need to aggressively challenge the transgender community's core issue: Under- and unemployment among all trans folk, especially among our brothers and sisters of color. The best way to empower trans people is going to make sure they can get jobs, and that means doing whatever it takes to make it clear to employers that trans people are every bit as talented and qualified, and often more so, to work as anyone else."
Kahrl said the GLAAD Board position came about after Boylan reached out to her.
"I gave a lot of thought to how I could reconcile this challenge with my other commitments, [including to] the Trans Life Center, the LGBT Sports Coalition, ONE Northside, and Equality Illinois, but the overlaps are additive and positive," Kahrl said. "It's a win-win for me, adaptively re-using time that I'm already spending on issues I'm already invested in and working on."
Kahrl said her personal goals for GLAAD are three-fold, starting with helping GLAAD in its core mission to lead the conversation in LGBT equality across society's full spectrum, and guarantee its ability to pursue that mission.
Second, "I'm hoping to help GLAAD's outreach and communications in the sports world, within the LGBT Sports Coalition, directly across sports media, and across the full spectrum of sports at every level where they impact LGBT people," she said. "While many will focus on which pro athlete in which sport is going to come out next, we also need to address the needs of LGBT athletes across the country in every community and at every level, [from] K-12, [and] recreational leagues. You name it, and [we must] find ways to make sure that any athlete's ability to participate while also being true to themselves is beyond challenge."
Third, Kahrl wants to help GLAAD on transgender issues as she is one of four transgender members of GLAAD's board.
Kahrl's work for GLAAD will entail board oversight, fundraising, networking, and a lot of email and meetings, she said. "In short, it's a natural outgrowth of a lot of what I'm already more than willing to do when I'm not working.
"My joining the board reflects the dynamic goals of LGBT advocacy, to serve all four elements of that quartet fully."
Kahrl will be attending Gov. Quinn's signing of the marriage equality bill on Nov. 20, and then at the observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Center on Halsted.
"I can think of no more poignant reflection of the state of LGBT advocacy in Illinois than that: [First] a historic victory in the fight for equality, the other a reflection community seeking help with survival in the face of systemic bigotry and violence," she said.
