Chaz Bono Tells Oprah About Transition To Becoming A Man
Posted on Tue May 10th, 2011 8:50am PDT By X17 Staff
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Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity Bono, opened up to Oprah Monday about his physical transition from woman to man.
Chaz, 42, is the child of Cher and the late Sonny Bono. He describes going through puberty as an adolescent and hating his body as it grew into a more womanly shape. "I felt like my body was betraying me," he said.
- "It was just horrifying to me. You have this image of yourself and all of a sudden your body does the exact opposite of what you feel."
Chaz said he first decided to become a lesbian -- a label that "worked for a little while." But, Chaz said he eventually realized that being a woman who was attracted to women was not his reality.
- "I always had this idea that, sure, I wished I was a boy and felt more like a boy and all of that. But I wasn't, so I would deal with it. And I for some reason thought there were other lesbians that felt that way and that was just part of that community. Then I started to realize, no, that isn't what a lesbian is at all. That's what being transgender is."
Chaz also talked about how parents react to transgender children.
- "This is an incredibly difficult process for parents, the truth is that a lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again."
So how did his very famous mother react? Read how Cher felt after the jump.
However, Cher did get hesitant when she first started to see the effects of testosterone injections. "When my voice started to change, I think, is when it really hit her," Chaz said. Being in the public eye throughout the process didn't help.
- "The hard thing for my mom, I think, is that because she's a public figure and because she has this personality of kind of being so cool about stuff and progressive, people forget that she's a parent."
The documentary Becoming Chaz, about Chaz's transition, premieres on OWN Tuesday. Chaz is still with his girlfriend, Jennifer Elia, whom he began dating in 2005 and has stood by his side throughout the transition.