The public has seen Chaz Bono grow up before their very eyes, at first as the daughter of Sonny and Cher. He was outed as lesbian in the '90s and wrote two books, Family Outing and The End of Innocence. Recently realizing that he was in the wrong body, Chaz underwent breast-removal surgery, documenting it on the OWN network.
Transition is the new book that chronicles the personal history of the life of Chaz that has not been revealed.
Windy City Times: Hello, Chaz. We met at Howard Brown when you were speaking there in Chicago.
Chaz Bono: Right, I remember.
Windy City Times: I told you that we would be doing an interview and today is the day. Are you tired of interviews at this point?
Chaz Bono: Unbelievably so.
Windy City Times: Is there one that you think went particularly well?
Chaz Bono: I enjoyed the Letterman one a lot. I felt like it was a challenge and it gave me a unique opportunity to really talk about the basics.
Windy City Times: How are you holding up?
Chaz Bono: A little tired but looking forward to the holiday weekend.
Windy City Times: Are you all over the place at book signings?
Chaz Bono: I'm not, no. Unfortunately they don't really do that anymore. It is not cost effective and there are not a lot of bookstores. I did two in L.A. and one in New York. I am going to trans conferences and doing some signings there over the next couple of months.
Windy City Times: You are coming back to Chicago to do a book-signing here.
Chaz Bono: Right, at Be-All, which is a trans conference.
Windy City Times: You are speaking there as well as the book-signing?
Chaz Bono: Yes, I am.
Windy City Times: From an outsider it seems like you are an introvert and your girlfriend, Jenny, is an extrovert.
Chaz Bono: Yes, definitely. That is definitely the case.
Windy City Times: It is important to educate people about being transgender no matter how difficult it is to be public. I know cases where when someone transitions from a man to a woman and still wants to be with women so is a lesbian technically.
Chaz Bono: Usually your sexual orientation doesn't change. The two things are not really related. People get confused with "you are gay now, you are straight or you were straight and now you are gay" instead of just looking at it as someone is attracted to women before and still attracted to them now or men before and still attracted to men.
Windy City Times: I watched the documentary Becoming Chaz. World of Wonder is great at producing docs and reality shows.
Chaz Bono: Yes, they do really good stuff and are very talented.
Windy City Times: How has everyone's reaction been from the doc?
Chaz Bono: Great; we have gotten great reviews, very positive reactions. People seem to really like it a lot.
Windy City Times: I liked watching you play video games with RuPaul.
Chaz Bono: Oh yeah, that was good.
Windy City Times: Do you have a favorite video game right now?
Chaz Bono: No, it is kind of a lull right now in the video-gaming season. Usually the best time of year for video games is the holiday season, as you would imagine. Sometimes though you will get a nice one in February or March if someone misses their deadline. You might get one or two good games over the summer if you are lucky. I am very unfulfilled in the gaming world at the moment.
Windy City Times: I just bought the Playstation Move and that is fun.
Chaz Bono: That is for casual gamers, which is totally great for kids but none of the ones I like to play are motion detection stuff.
Windy City Times: What was the reaction of our brother, Elijah, to your coming out publicly as transgender?
Chaz Bono: It was difficult at first and then once he was actually around me after I started transitioning, he told me that it was something that sounded like a really big deal but in reality it just wasn't.
Windy City Times: Was your mother, Cher, judgemental of this process?
Chaz Bono: I don't think "judgemental" is the word but she was not comfortable with me being as masculine as I was before transitioning.
Windy City Times: Your relationship seems to be getting better with her, right?
Chaz Bono: Yes.
Windy City Times: You mentioned that you weren't comfortable taking pictures throughout the book. Is that better now?
Chaz Bono: Yes, I am comfortable now. It is not my favorite thing. My photo shoots are still kind of a pain. That is just part of my work, but no, I don't have that same issue that I had before. I used to not like to have my picture taken because I didn't like the way that I looked.
Windy City Times: You want more facial hair, correct?
Chaz Bono: I don't have more because I can't grow more right now. It takes a long time for facial hair to grow in. I have some but not in the form that one would want to grow it.
Windy City Times: How do you feel about the word "tranny?"
Chaz Bono: I have a problem with it. It is a derogatory statement, in my opinion. I think people shouldn't use it. A lot of gay men use and think it's okay to use it; it just isn't. That is not to say that there are not some transgender people would not have a problem with their friends saying that, just like lots of people in those settings are fine with it. It is not appropriate with some people and not a good idea. I have gotten on World of Wonder's case about that with RuPaul's Drag Race. They have to stop using that on there.
Windy City Times: RuPaul even has a song called "Tranny Chaser."
Chaz Bono: Yes, it is really different than I think people realize. Doing drag and being transgender are completely different issues. That line gets blurred sometimes and that word gets used and people need to be aware of it.
Windy City Times: Any word that people are mistreated over is not good.
Chaz Bono: Right, exactly.
Windy City Times: You and Jenny are engaged currently.
Chaz Bono: Yes.
Windy City Times: She is a knock out and has a great energy.
Chaz Bono: Thank you.
Windy City Times: Anything else you want to say about the book?
Chaz Bono: I would say there is a universal theme to it that people aren't really getting. It is very much about overcoming fear and growing up.
Windy City Times: You have written other books but this one goes back and explains how you were really feeling.
Chaz Bono: Absolutely. It is the most I have ever felt like revealing about myself. It is about working through your issues and becoming who you are, whoever that is. For me it was transgender but I think everyone has certain things about themselves that they can't get to because of fear or issues in the past.
Purchase the book by visiting www.chazbono.net and read the real story of Chaz Bono. On Saturday, June 4, Bono will speak at the Be-All transgender conference, and hold a book-signing. See www.be-all.org .
