Within minutes of ABC’s announcement that transgender male Chaz Bono was added to the cast of Dancing With The Stars, the DWTS message board exploded with outrage.
Bono, 42, the only child of 70s pop superstars Sonny & Cher, came out as a lesbian in 1995. In 2010 she decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery to become a man.
But in an interview with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, which aired a documentary film entitled Becoming Chaz, Bono said she didn’t want male genitalia.
Still, Bono insists that she’s a man despite the lack of working body parts that distinguishes “him” from a female.
“At this point, I really don’t have any plans to do bottom surgery,” he said. “I feel really good, I feel like a man now, and I’m really happy,” he/she told Winfrey.
It’s one thing to promote tolerance for people who are different from much of society. But it’s another thing to ask society to feed into the idiosyncrasies of a small segment of the population.
Just to clarify, Bono no longer considers herself to be a lesbian, she insists that she’s a man even though she doesn’t have manly parts.
Parents who don’t want their children exposed to Bono’s confusing sexuality have bombarded ABC with complaints such as the ones below.
“There are a few women in my office that are very much against having Chaz Bono on the show because he is transgendered.”
“HUGE HUGE fan of this show since season two and eagerly await each season to get my dancing/entertainment ’fix’!! But when I heard that Chaz Bono was going to be on, I was sick. Not that I have anything personally again her/him, I just don’t want that lifestyle choice continually flaunted in the media esp ABC.”
“Chaz will have to dance with one of the girls because she/he says she/he is a man but chromosomes say different no matter how many surgeries you have.”
Surprisingly, there were no similar complaints about Oxygen’s “Hair Battle Spectacular” which is hosted by the weird looking, cross dressing hairstylist Derek J. But maybe that’s because his show is on cable?
