Born a female, Chaz Bono, formerly known as Chastity Bono, came out as gay in 1989. She then decided to become a legally transgendered male, and has been in process of becoming a man since March.
Bono opens up about female-to-male sex change
Now, the 40-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star Bono is beginning to feel some of the change in the process of becoming a man.
In a two-part interview with 'Entertainment Tonight' airing Thursday and Friday night on CBS, Bono is breaking his public silence about taking hormones and growing up as a girl and then deciding to undergo gender reassignment surgery and become a man.
Sex swap wasn’t a hasty decision
Bono tells ET his decision to have a sex change, from female to male, didn't come overnight.
"It wasn't a sudden decision," ABC News quoted Bono as telling ET during the interview with Mary Hart. "I've been doing therapy for a long time. It's a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn't have done this before that."
He adds, "I always felt like the male from the time I was a child. There wasn't much feminine about me. I believe that gender is something between your ears not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early 90's. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it. I was turning 40 and I thought it's now or never. I want to still feel vibrant and be able to enjoy my life in a male body and not wait until I am an old man."
Admits taking hormones
Bono tells ET he has been undergoing a female-to-male sex change and gender reassignment surgery since March, and the process has already had dramatic physical changes on his body.
Bono says he is on a steady regiment of hormones and certain changes are becoming very noticeable.
“It lowered my voice," he tell ET, according to ABC News. "Fat redistributes, muscle growth, hair growth, sex drive increases. It doesn't change anything mentally and emotionally. [I'm] still not anywhere near what I will look like but really for the first time I am feeling much more comfortable with how I look physically.”
"I shave about once a week now," Chaz says. "It kind of started to come in just like peach fuzz. I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff."
Chastity Bono
Bono (Born March 4, 1969) was born a daughter to the American entertainers late Sonny Bono and Cher, well-known as pop duo Sonny & Cher. Bono, who was a tomboy as a child, first identified herself as a lesbian when she saw the film 'Personal Best' at the age of thirteen.
Bono began her (now his) career with a short-lived music career with his band, Ceremony. The band that included Heidi Shink also known as Chance, Pete McRae, Steve Bauman, Louis Ruiz, and Bryn Mathieu released one album, 'Hang Out Your Poetry', in 1993.
Besides working as a writer for 'The Advocate', a national gay and lesbian magazine, Bono also served as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, promoting National Coming Out Day, campaigning for the reelection of Bill Clinton for U.S. President and campaigning against the Defense of Marriage Act.
In 1995, Bono posed for the cover of The Advocate, and worked as Entertainment Media Director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
Bono has written two books- ‘Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families’, which tells the story of his own coming out, and also the stories of other gay and lesbian people; and ‘The End of Innocence’, which is a memoir that discusses his outing, his music career, and his relationships with his lover Joan and his death from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The book also details how his relationship with Sonny and Cher changed through the years.
mothers reaction
I would like to know how Cher learned to accept this. My own daughter is in a relationship with a woman. This creeps me out. As a mother, how do you learn to accept this type of life style when it is your own child?
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