Chaz Bono
Template:Use American English Template:Short description Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Pp-move Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Chaz Salvatore Bono<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (born Chastity Sun Bono, March 4, 1969) is an American writer, musician and actor. His parents are entertainers Sonny Bono and Cher, and he became widely known in appearances as a child on their television show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.<ref name="tvguide">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="rightcelebrity">Template:Cite news</ref>
Chaz Bono is a trans man. In 1995, while then presenting as a woman, and several years after being outed as lesbian by the tabloid press, Chaz publicly self-identified as a lesbian in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate. Bono eventually went on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and others in two books: Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families (1998) includes his coming-out account. The memoir The End of Innocence (2003) discusses his outing, music career, and partner Joan's death from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.<ref name="AFTERELLEN">Template:Cite news</ref>
Between 2008 and 2010, Bono sought out gender-affirming care, commonly called gender transition. In a June 2009 two-part CBS TV Entertainment Tonight feature Chaz explained that his medical transition had started a year prior.<ref name="ETCB">"Chaz Bono", June 15–16, 2009, Entertainment Tonight.</ref> In May 2010, he legally changed his ID to match his gender and name.<ref name="foxgenderchange"/> A documentary on Bono's experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and later made its television debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Bono was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Cher and Sonny Bono of the pop duo Sonny & Cher, stars of a TV variety show on which the young child often appeared. Bono was named after the film Chastity, which was produced by Sonny and in which Cher (in her first solo role in a feature film) played a bisexual woman.<ref>Bryant, Wayne, M. (1996). Bisexual Characters in Film, from Anaïs to Zee. Haworth Press. p. 117. Template:ISBN</ref> Through his mother, Bono is of Armenian, Irish, English, and German ancestry. He is of Italian descent through his father.<ref>Template:Harvnb: Sarkisian's profession; Template:Harvnb: Sarkisian's nationality and personal problems, Crouch's profession; Template:Harvnb: Crouch's ancestry.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Bono was enrolled at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bono came out to both parents as a lesbian at age 18. In Family Outing, Bono wrote that, "as a child, I always felt there was something different about me. I'd look at other girls my age and feel perplexed by their obvious interest in the latest fashion, which boy in class was the cutest, and who looked the most like cover girl Christie Brinkley. When I was 13, I finally found a name for exactly how I was different. I realized I was gay."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
CeremonyEdit
Bono began a short music career in 1988 with the band Ceremony,<ref name = "AFTERELLEN"/> which released one album, Hang Out Your Poetry, in 1993. The band featured Bono on vocals, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Other members were Steve March Tormé (backup vocals), Heidi Shink a.k.a. Chance, Pete McRae, Steve Bauman, Louis Ruiz, and Bryn Mathieu. All but one of the band's songs were written or co-written by Bono, Shink, and Mark Hudson. They used no synthesizers or digital effects on the album; Shink noted, "We turned our back on technology. [ ... ] 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 90s."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Critical reception of the album was lukewarm, with Roch Parisien of Allmusic describing Hang Out Your Poetry as a mildly psychedelic take on early 1990s pop, "pleasant, accessible, well-produced ear-candy that's ultimately toothless".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The songs "Could've Been Love" and "Ready for Love" were released as singles from the album. Sonny and Cher also recorded backing vocals for the track "Livin' It Up" on the album.
LGBTQ activismEdit
In April 1995, then-Chastity Bono came out as a lesbian in an interview with The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian magazine.<ref name="CNN">Template:Cite news</ref> The 1998 book Family Outing detailed how Bono's coming out "catapulted me into a political role that has transformed my life, providing me with affirmation as a lesbian, as a woman, and as an individual."<ref name="Bono 1998 viii">Template:Cite book</ref> In the same book, Bono reported that Cher, who was both a gay icon and an ally of LGBTQ communities, was quite uncomfortable with the news at first and "went ballistic"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> before coming to terms with it: "By August 1996, one year after I came out publicly, my mother had progressed so far that she agreed to 'come out' herself on the cover of The Advocate as the proud mother of a lesbian daughter."<ref name="Bono 1998 viii"/> Cher has since become an outspoken LGBTQ rights activist.
Chastity Bono's paternal relationship became strained from November 1994, when her father was elected as a Republican Congressman from California. Their differing political views separated them, and the father and daughter had not spoken for more than a year at the time of Sonny's fatal skiing accident in January 1998.<ref name="CNN"/>
Bono worked as a writer at large for The Advocate.<ref name = "AFTERELLEN"/> As a social activist, Bono became a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, promoted National Coming Out Day, campaigned for the reelection of Bill Clinton for US president, campaigned against the Defense of Marriage Act, and served as Entertainment Media Director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).<ref name="AFTERELLEN"/> Bono was a team captain for Celebrity Fit Club 3 (2006) and was supported by girlfriend Jennifer Elia, who orchestrated exercise and training sessions.<ref name="ETCB"/>
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Bono and others told the stories of the people killed there.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
TransitionEdit
In mid-2008, Bono began undergoing a physical and social transition from female to male. This was confirmed in June 2009 by his publicist,<ref name="ETCB"/> who identified Bono's name as Chaz Bono and said, "It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his coming out did."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> GLAAD and the Empowering Spirits Foundation were quick to offer praise and support for the announcement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bono's legal transition was completed on May 6, 2010, when a California court granted his request for a gender and name change.<ref name="foxgenderchange">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bono made Becoming Chaz, a documentary film about his transition that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The Oprah Winfrey Network acquired the rights to the documentary and debuted it on May 10, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In September 2011, he became a competitor on the 13th season of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional ballroom dancer Lacey Schwimmer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The duo was eliminated on October 25, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This was the first time an openly transgender man starred on a major network television show for something unrelated to being transgender.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
His book, Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be was published in 2012, making him the first person of Armenian descent to publish a memoir about being an openly transgender man.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FilmographyEdit
FilmEdit
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | Bar GirlsTemplate:Efn | Scorp' | |
2004 | FronterzTemplate:Efn | ||
2016 | Dirty | Jerry the Hoarder | |
2019 | 3 from Hell | Digby Neville | |
2020 | Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen | Himself | Documentary film |
2020 | Reboot Camp | Herbert | mockumentary |
2023 | The Bell Keeper | Sheriff Carlson | |
2024 | Little Bites | Paul | Also executive producer |
TelevisionEdit
Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1972–77 | The Sonny & Cher Comedy HourTemplate:Efn | Himself | 32 episodes | ||
1975 | CherTemplate:Efn | Himself | Episode 2.14 | ||
1997 | EllenTemplate:Efn | The Moderator | Episode: "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" | ||
2011 | Becoming Chaz | Himself | Documentary film | ||
Dancing with the Stars | Himself | 6 episodes | |||
2012 | Degrassi: The Next Generation | Himself | Episode: "Tonight, Tonight: Part 2" | ||
2013 | The Secret Life of the American Teenager | Himself | Episode: "To Each Her Own" | ||
2014 | RuPaul's Drag Race | Himself/Guest Judge | "Queens of Talk"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> "Reunited!"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
2016 | The Bold and the Beautiful | Reverend Rydale | 5 episodes | ||
American Horror Story: Roanoke | Brian Wells (Lot Polk, re-enactment) | 4 episodes | |||
Where the Bears Are | Gavin Kelly | 3 episodes | |||
2017 | American Horror Story: Cult | Gary K. Longstreet | 8 episodes | ||
2018 | Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets | Upcoming series | |||
2020 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Joey Funkhouser | Episode: "The Spite Store" |
BibliographyEdit
- Family OutingTemplate:Efn (with Billie Fitzpatrick) (1998). Little, Brown and Company. pp. 272. Template:ISBN
- The End of Innocence: A MemoirTemplate:Efn (with Michele Kort) (2003). pp. 232. Template:ISBN
- Transition: The story of how I became a man (with Billie Fitzpatrick) (2011). New York: Dutton. Template:ISBN
- Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be (with Billie Fitzpatrick) (2012 paperback). Plume. pp. 272. Template:ISBN
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
External linksEdit
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