Chaz Bono - Misplaced Pages

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Chastity Bono (born March 4, 1969) is an American LGBT rights advocate, writer, actor and musician. Bono is the child of the American entertainers Sonny and Cher.

Family life

Chastity Sun Bono, aka Chaz Bono, is the child of Sonny Bono and Cher, well-known as pop duo Sonny & Cher. Chastity was named after the title of Cher's first feature film, which had its première shortly before her birth in 1969.

Childhood

Bono recalls being a tomboy as a child, and when she made appearances with her parents on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, she insisted on being dressed to match her father rather than her mother. She first identified herself as a lesbian when she saw the film Personal Best at the age of thirteen.

Chastity Bono's relationship with father Sonny Bono became strained after he took office as a Republican Congressman from California. The differences in their political views separated them, and the two had not spoken for more than a year when he died in a skiing accident in January 1998.

Sexuality and sexual orientation

Coming out

Bono came out to her parents at age 18. In her memoir Family Outing, Bono surprised many when she revealed that when she told her mother that she was a lesbian, Cher was quite uncomfortable with the news and "went ballistic for a few days", before coming to terms with Chastity and since becoming one of the most well known GLBT activists, achieving "diva" status amongst many. However, when she told her father, Sonny, he had no problem with it and was immediately supportive and even said that he had always thought she was gay, despite being against gay marriage in his political views. Bono was outed as lesbian by the Star in January 1990. She was not ready to be out to the world, and denied the tabloid's assertion. In April 1995, she voluntarily came out in an interview with The Advocate after a series of nonpublished meetings.

Sex reassignment surgery

On June 11, 2009, Bono's publicist confirmed that Bono began a sex change operation earlier in the year. During the transformation he will stay in seclusion.

Career

Musician

Chastity Bono began her career with a short-lived music career with her band, Ceremony.

Ceremony released one album, Hang Out Your Poetry, in 1993. The band featured Bono on vocals, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Other members were Heidi Shink a/k/a Chance, Pete McRae, Steve Bauman, Louis Ruiz, and Bryn Mathieu. All the songs except one were written or co-written by Bono, Heidi Shink, and Mark Hudson. There are no synthesizers or digital effects anywhere on the album.

We turned our back on technology. Everything you hear was played by humans. It's reminiscent of the 60s, but more a tip of the hat than emulating it. We took the music we love and rejuvenated it, made it 90's.
— Heidi Shink,

The song "Could've Been Love" was released as a single from the album. The album's other tracks are "Goodbye Sunshine", "Steal Your Heart", "Day by Day", "Ready for Love", "Ready for Love (Refrain)", "Hang Out Your Poetry", "Turn It Over", "Trust", "2 of 1", "First Day of My Life", "Breathless", "Living in a Paradise," and "Livin' It Up." Sonny and Cher also took a small part in recording the album: the last song includes vocals (uncredited) by Sonny Bono and Cher.

The album was not successful and the band was dropped by their record label (David Geffen's DGC).

Writer and activist

Bono worked as a writer at large for The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian magazine.

Bono became a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, promoting National Coming Out Day, campaigning for the reelection of Bill Clinton for US President and campaigning against the Defense of Marriage Act.

Bono served as Entertainment Media Director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Bono has written two books. Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families tells the story of her own coming out, and also the stories of other gay and lesbian people. The End of Innocence is a memoir which discusses her outing, her music career, and her partner Joan's death from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bono came under fire by the LGBT community when she made comments about the television show Ellen, starring openly lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres. In particular she stated that the show was "too gay." This led to speculation that Bono was a self-loathing lesbian, something she has vehemently denied.

Bono was a participant of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club 3. This show is a celebrity fitness show that monitors weight loss. She went to the series after she expressed interest to both lose weight (she weighed 215 pounds (97.5 kg) at the start of the series) and quit smoking. While many felt Bono to be a front runner in at the start of the show, judging by her positive attitude, she lost less than half of her target for the show. In 2007 it was reported that she gained back most of the weight she lost on the show.

Books

Family Outing (with Billie Fitzpatrick) (1998) ISBN 0-316-10233-4
The End of Innocence: A Memoir (with Michele Kort) (2003) ISBN 1-55583-795-6

Footnotes

^ DiStefano, Blase (November 1996). "Chastity Bono". OutSmart Magazine. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
^ Freydkin, Donna (1998-10-14). "Chastity Bono opens up about coming out". CNN. Retrieved 2007-02-20.
"UPDATE: Chastity Bono Undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery". US Magazine. June 11, 2009.
^ Marcus, Lydia (2006-03-21). "Interview with Chastity Bono". AfterEllen. Retrieved 2007-02-19.

External links

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