Chaz Bono

A while back, I wrote about Chastity Bono and her journey to manhood as “Chaz” Bono.  Her decision to become male was the least newsworthy even that week but I couldn’t pass up on commenting about it.  And maybe for her and the GLBT community, that was the point.

Well, Chaz is in the news again, garnering some prominence on CNN with a status update on “his” progress.  Wow!  Newsworthy?  Again, No!  Comment worthy?  Of course.

So here’s what Chaz had to say (in part):

“I always felt like the male from the time I was a child,” he said. “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 ’90s. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it.”

Really?  Why do anything about it?  If gender is really “between your ears”, then by your own admission, you were already a male.  You would medically and surgically alter what you received genetically to fit a mental image of who and what you are.  Pray that you don’t one day wake up and realize that you are indeed a female.  It’s not like changing shoes.  And I know, the process is long and involves evaluations before this can be done.  That’s not to say that things won’t change later.

I know someone who claims to be suffering from gender dysphoria and my challenge to this person was that the mental state is what needed to change, not the physical state.  Amazing thing, Chastity, that you were willing to take male hormones and have your body altered to become what you felt in your mind you should be—but were apparently unwilling to keep your body and to instead take female hormones to better become what you already were.

I am no more an expert on the subject than you are, but clearly, if it’s in the head, isn’t that the easier place to start with a change?

MORE:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/30/chaz.bono.man/index.html

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20286040,00.html?cnn=yes

http://trebord.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/chastity-a-lost-virtue/