Cher’s onetime daughter Chastity has legally been declared a man and has completed his gender reassignment surgery, according to official court documents. Chaz was seen outside of court in a suit and tie and he looked happy and triumphant after his long journey. (You can see more photos here.) I didn’t spot Chaz’s longterm girlfriend and rumored fiance, Jennifer Elia, in the pictures. Now that Chaz is officially a male, he will be able to legally marry a woman under California law. The National Enquirer reported last year that Chaz and Elia were trying for a baby through in vitro fertilization for Jennifer.
Chaz Bono’s long journey to change from a she to a he has finally come to an end – with a Judge granting Bono’s petition for a legal gender and name change.
A jubilant Chaz, looking very dapper in a suit and tie, was at court Thursday, and RadarOnline.com can bring you the photos.
And that’s not all, according to documents filed in March, Chaz has also completed his gender reassignment surgery, the documents state that Chaz underwent an “irreversible surgery” on September 23, 2009 to change his “sex characteristics from female to male.”
So it’s officially goodbye Chastity, hello Chaz – Congratulations!
[From Radar Online]
There will be inevitable questions about what the gender reassignment surgery involved, and from what I’ve read it was surgical removal of Chaz’s breasts along with hormone treatments. I saw Chaz on Good Morning America last November and came away with a much better understanding of how he struggled with gender identity since he was a child. He said that once he made the decision to make the change the hardest thing was dealing with the loss of privacy that comes along with being a celebrity:
“An incredible hurdle was the idea that I wasn’t going to be able to do this privately like most people can. That took a really long time to get over. And then, I think it was about dealing with the people in my life and how it was going to affect them. And finally, it came down to realizing that I got to live my life for myself. And life is short and life is precious, and this is who I am. I need to finally be who I am.”
Congratulations to Chaz and best wishes for the future.
He looks like Drew Carey.
any photos of him before he started transitioning?
I’m so happy for Chaz; glad that he can finally live life on his terms.
Good for him. Certainly a “teachable moment” for the rest of America.
BTW, there’s a great article in this month’s Oprah magazine written by a woman who fell in love with a guy who was not “born a man.” So it’s an of-the-moment topic.
And he does look like Drew Carey.
I’m so excited and proud of him; it takes such courage to be who you want to be, especially in such an extreme situation. I just want to give him a hug!
His girlfriend is pretty hot.
I’m sorry but all this evokes from me is ewwwwwww.
@Marjalane – same here. just another fat sloppy man. hope he/she will resolve obvious eating issues.
He seems so much happier now. Good for him.
I hope this doesn’t come across as ignorant or condescending or dumb, but I’m simply curious. What do they consider their relationship to be? Jennifer was dating Chaz when he was still a woman. Yet, do they consider their relationship to be heterosexual?
He/she is sort of an offensive term to a transsexual. He is a he, end of story, no matter how he started out.
I’m happy for him. He’s finally at peace with who he is and that’s a good thing.
It’s interesting that his gender was legally changed, as well. I don’t think all states do that, like, I’m pretty sure in MD you can get a sex change but you will always be considered, legally, as your original sex, and therefore could not marry someone who is the same sex that you started out as. This is a fascinating legal issue.
Chaz has always been on the heavy-set side but I agree that he looks bigger lately. I think it obviously stems from the difficulties he has had in life in regards to body image. Also, I can imagine that having a twig-like mum definitely didn’t help the issue.
No matter, I too am happy for him and wish him all the best in life. 🙂
@manda – I believe in all 50 states in the US after gender reassignment surgery, your birth certificate is changed. Including MD.
Not to mention the massive amounts of hormones he has to take to maintain his gender. Jesus, how about a little sensitivity @meme?!
If you can still have a uterus and can get pregnant, which I don’t know if Chaz can, you’re a women. End of story.
Sorry, but SHE is disgusting. And she does not look “dapper in a suit and tie”, she looks like a fat ass wanna-be-man in a suit and tie. How revolting.
@ shorty40…
I know! All I can see is a very large woman with a bad haircut.
To Shorty40, it isn’t digusting, it is a part of nature. Take a step outside of your own self-centered hang-ups and realize that not everyone in the world experiences things the way you do. Get some help, get a life.
Woaaah guys, please stop making hateful statements about Chaz’s weight because of YOUR OWN ignorance! Testosterone causes immediate weight gain for transitioning people, it has nothing to do with diet and exercise. As Chaz’s body adjusts to the hormones, he’ll lose the weight.
Jeez, people just want to hate on anyone who doesn’t fit into a little box. I feel sorry for those of you who cannot wrap your brains around the fact that there aren’t just two genders in the world (there are actually SIX, if you’d bother to read up on gender studies lit)
Bonfire Beach – that’s a great question, and it’s not condescending at all. I would imagine that they don’t try to put a label on their relationship, but since Chaz has identified as a man for a very long time, personally if not publicly, I think they’ve probably always considered their relationship to be something like genderqueer (meaning neither hetero or homosexual). Of course I don’t know that for sure, that’s something they’d have to discuss if you want a definitive answer. I just make that guess because my best friend dated a transman (biologically female person transitioning to male).
Really guys, try to open your minds and your hearts. Transgendered people go through so many hardships in life, they don’t need your judgments too. Just let them live a happy life. They’re not hurting you.
He looks more like Jonah Hill to me.
i am happy for him
as to the rude comments on here, not at all shocked or surprised… there will always be people that trash talk though
i just look forward to the day we can all accept each other as equal humans, ideological/sexual/racial differences aside
i’m not being provocative. i’m genuinely curious if anyone has any thoughts on this question. if chaz’s girlfriend is a lesbian, as has been reported, what does this do to their relationship?
Congratulations to Chaz! This is obviously a momentous occasion for him. I don’t see why people get so offended by this. If he wants to be a man, who is that hurting? So F-ing what?
Having said that, for the sake of his health, I do hope he deals with his weight issues at some point in the near future. Then he can look forward to a long healthy life in his new authentic persona!
I’m really happy for him too and just very touched by how much courage this must have taken. I can’t imagine having to do something so personal under so much public scrutiny. He’s a real inspiration and I hope he’s rewarded with genuine kindness, love and acceptance.
@stitch. no fair calling me out when there are plenty of others talking trash. chas has ALWAYS been big and has an eating disorder. other people have sex changes and they don’t become ENORMOUS. and i’m sorry, but that ‘man’ who became pregant and had a baby IS NOT a man. MEN cannot have babies.
re cowbell – Each state has its own jurisprudence and/or statutes/regulations regarding how a sex change affects marriage and whether (and when) one may legally change his or her sex. I studied this for a law review article I wrote on the issue while in law school (2006, so there has been little change since).
I can accept anything. As Shannon said it’s their life and they are not hurting me. However, I believe that Chaz is still a woman. If she has XX chromosomes, she is biologically female. A person can not change their genetic make up/DNA. IF/WHEN science is able to do that (genetically change a XX person into a XY person) THEN it would actually be truthful in saying a woman has become a man (or vice versa). I’m not judging – just stating facts.
That being said, we only have one life to life and if this makes Chaz or any other transgender person happy, then more power to them.
Also, I did a quick Google search on genders and although there is literature about a 3rd and 4th gender if you get back to basics (DNA and chromosomes) genetically there is only XY and XX.
Third Gender: a person who is neither male nor female. Most are anatomically male or gender-ambiguous, but they tend to dress as females without trying to be women.
Forth Gender: One who is an anatomical male who takes the traditional ‘female’ role in sexual activities with men. They tend to dress as women and act as women, and refer to themselves as women in their speech.
Even in the case of hermaphroditism, it is considered an anomally and not a distinct gender set.
Intersex in humans (hermaphrodites) refers to intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male. This is usually understood to be congenital, involving chromosomal, morphologic, genital and/or gonadal anomalies, such as diversion from typical XX-female or XY-male presentations, e.g., sex reversal (XY-female, XX-male), genital ambiguity, sex developmental differences.
I LOVE this topic by the way – very interesting. ;o)
**EDIT – OOPS Shannon said SIX genders. In my quick 2 minute search I only found 4. I’ll continue to research this as I’m genuinely interested.**
So happy for him, best wishes 🙂
I wish him all the best; I know it’s been a rough journey. Some of the people on here would do well to educate themselves about this issue. Understanding brings compassion, and some of you seem to have none.
@meme and prissa… there’s “sex”, and then there’s “gender”. Sex is biological, as in having a uterus and XX chromosomes. Sex is unchangeable. Gender, however, is how you perceive yourself and how you are perceived. That’s why this is called a “gender” reassignment, not a sex reassignment. What you guys are saying is half true… Chaz will always be of the female sex just because of the way he was born. But as of now he is of the male gender, and I hope he has a happy life.
slightly off topic, I remember watching the Sonny & Cher show when I was a kid, only watching to see what Cher would be wearing. I remember once or twice they bought Chaz out on stage. He was a beautiful little girl back in the day. Does anyone else remember Cher’s body and those great outfits that she wore? The 70s were so fun!
I wish I was old enough to be around in the 70s 🙁 Loved those glittery clothes
Prissa, I’ll look for the piece I read in gender studies outlining six genders, it’s very cool. I do think you’re using “gender” and “sex” interchangeably though, and I would like to point out that they are different concepts.
SEX is your biological makeup, and has to do with your chromosomes and reproductive organs. It’s much more clear-cut than gender, but as you’ve found even this has more than the categories of “male” and “female”. XX and XY are the most common chromosome pairs, but there are mutations even of that. You can be XXY or just X, or any other number of different mutations. This means that it truly is possible to be genetically both a male and a female, or something else entirely.
GENDER is a social construct, much like race. It is the role we learn from birth. We are conditioned to act our gender from the moment we’re born – dressed in either pink frilly dresses or blue onesies, with matching bedroom, toys, etc. Because gender is a social construct, it’s not actually binary. Man and woman are concepts that we give attributes to – masculine, feminine, etc. But there are also many varieties of gender in between man and woman, as well as completely separate – neither man nor woman. I did say there were six, but in reality there is not a limit to how many genders could exist. It’s kind of like sexual orientation. For a long time, people thought heterosexual was the only orientation. But then homosexual and bisexual showed up in the public sphere. And then asexual, pansexual, ambisexual, and suddenly it became clear that gender and sexual orientation shouldn’t be thought of at neat little categories, but a continual spectrum. The truth is, very few of us are completely heterosexual or homosexual. We may be very close to one, for example I can say with confidence that I’m quite heterosexual; I’ve only ever dated men and plan to continue that route. But I’d still say I’m probably only 90% heterosexual.
If you’re interested in finding out more about this stuff, now is a great time to be reading gender literature, because so much research is being done about it!
Does anyone else remember Cher’s body and those great outfits that she wore? The 70s were so fun! — Leticia
Leticia – Oh! I remember that show VERY WELL!! Yes, Cher was SO SEXY – I bet it would really freak people out who never saw that show. I mean, not ONLY the great clothes, amazing long Native American inspired mane of smooth, silky, straight black hair glistening and satinny DOWN TO HER BUM! Cher’s body was so sexified by the two-piece tummy baring, hip bone skimming, extra-low rise sequinned GOWNS that Bob Mackie made for her . . .
Plus she was so very tanned, so young with such a taut, trim body. I swear her tummy and shoulders were oiled down to enhance her sex appeal. Her makeup was always very sexy highlighting her gorgeous big eyes and tan . . . then there’d GLOSSY LIPS!
Glossy Lips! Glossy Hair! And glossy, glistening, taut and tan tummy, hips, arms, legs, and shoulders! MEOWWW!!!!
Oh – and I’m so happy for Chaz! I remember seeing him as a young child on the Sonny and Cher show. Poor guy – he always looked uncomfortable and unhappy to me (and I was probably the same age as him then). Now we know why.
Wishing you well Chaz! Hoping that the rest of your life is hundreds of times more comfortable and joyous and FREE!
Congrats to Chaz for making it official!
I have NEVER read, or heard, or seen an interview in which Chaz is anything less than a stellar human being.
Also, there is something to note about the way Jennifer is handling herself, as well.
Hopefully by just being who he is, it will help open the closed minds of some.
Congrats Chaz, Follow your Bliss!
Best of luck with the in vitro…
Shannon – I really appreciate reading all that info you posted about gender. I hope to find some literature about the subject soon and read it. I’m really not too educated on that subject and it seems important to be in-the-know like YESTERDAY! THANKS again for clueing us in.
I agree with those who say sex and gender are two different things.
Chaz Bono is male in terms of gender and that’s all that matters. He’s not hurting anyone by being who he is and by making who he feels inside appear on the outside.
I will say though, I feel sorry for him because of his weight. Maybe the eating issues came from being unhappy with himself? Maybe now that he’s finally who he wanted to be he can get healthy.
To Tory: it is NOT part of nature, this is people taking nature and distorting it in gross and perverted ways. Just because I find it offensive and nasty doesn’t mean I have any hang-ups. It’s my personal opinion and it is allowed, just as are the opinions who support this shit.
I could say that I’m a cat, but it doesn’t make it so. Chaz is a WOMAN, and always will be. If she wants to delude herself and pretend to be a man, great, I don’t care, it’s her life, but I will not play the game and make believe along with her. If she’s happy, great, but why should everyone else (the 99.9% of heteronormative people) be expected to go along with this fantasy? THAT is what I do not understand.
Shannon & Freckles – THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! I learned something new just now. What a forum CB can be!!! :0)
You both are right I was confusing the two (Sex and Gender). Thanks for setting me straight. I’ve got a better insight now and will do more research because I really am very interested. I’m so happy I UNDERSTAND now!
Thanks again! ;o)
A “teachable moment”? Oh come on!
I’m totally amazed at what people will accept these days.
prissa, no problem! I remember thinking it was very interesting when I first learned the difference, we always think of them as the same thing because for most people they are. If you’re a female by sex you probably are by gender too. But once you differentiate the two people like Chaz make a lot more sense (since we as humans like to lump people into categories by nature). Isn’t learning FUN!? 😉
This is the happiest I’ve seen Chaz look in YEARS. It takes courage to follow your heart. Congrats and Best Wishes!
seeing a “man” pregnant is too weird for me.
Congrats to Chaz, I think he’s a cool person.
That said, I’ve always wondered…how does the sex change surgery work for someone like Chaz? Like, I get turning a penis into a vagina, but the other way around…? I know I could look this up, but I know better. D:
Hideous. Just hideous.
BTW, enough with the psychobabble. Sex and gender are the same thing. Are liberal professors now teaching that they are different?
I never learned that in college but I’ve learned it living life and knowing people who will tell you from personal experience – usually very painful- that there is a difference. Making an effort to understand people who are different from us makes life more interesting and fulfilling. It’s really not such a bad thing.
He is not “heavy.” He is morbidly obese. I really want him to be happy, and I hope he finds a way to get that under control. Not being hateful. It’s a fact. He looks as though he’d be out of breath walking from the car to the house. That’s not healthy, and the initial testosterone gain is not to blame for all of that.
I have a great deal of sympathy for what these people with “gender issues” go through. As long as they are respectful and gentle with their families’ feelings about it, I wish them the best. It seems Chaz has been lovely and thoughtful throughout. I’m glad he finally has what he needed.
@The Bobster – Sex and gender have always been two different things. Educate yourself.
“any photos of him before he started transitioning?”
They’re virtually identical – just different clothes. I don’t have an issue with the sex change surgery, just the idea that having it done somehow proves you are a wonderful human being.
It is not loving to encourage someone who is contemplating voluntary genital mutilation. Supporting someone’s choice to undergo elective surgery that will butcher them beyond recognition is not loving. ( Any surgeon who performs these procedures is in complete denial of the Hippocratic oath by the way. ) You cannot say you love someone just because you always agree with them and they never feel any challenge or resistance from you. You cannot say that at least these people aren’t hurting anybody. They are hurting themselves, and that is enough for someone who loves them to take a stand, and risk being shunned. When someone is lost, it is almost inevitably the people that they cut out of their lives that are the ones who really care. See King Lear, for instance.
@Gatsby, I’m not sure that Chaz has had his downstairs changed, he said in a earlier interview that he wasn’t going to talk about that as he wanted something kept private.
but in general, the surgeons make the penis out of ski ad tissue take from your forearm, I think. I looked at a book about this, but that was ages ago ad my memory’s a little fuzzy.
@meme: “chas has ALWAYS been big and has an eating disorder. other people have sex changes and they don’t become ENORMOUS”
Different people react differently to different drugs. Just because some people didn’t gain weight, doesn’t mean others don’t balloon up. That’s why there are studies for medicine. Use some common sense and stop trying to justify being ignorant to people about their weight.
Once again, another topic spun around to weight issues because people are ignorant and don’t get that not everyone is a size 0. I’ll bet you anything in the world that they wouldn’t like it if it was said about them. Some of the posters on here are just rude and need a reality check and need to think before they open their mouths.
You don’t need to agree with someone, but have some class about it. There’s no need to insult him when he’s not hurting anybody. His weight is none of your concern and the people that make it about that just need to get a life and stop obsessing about someone elses.
Sick! Sick! Sick! Maybe i change my dog in2 a man, with al d hormones nd surgery available.
i think complaining about doing the change publicly is ridiculous.
I didn’t even know who he was until he made it the sex change public.
People can have private lives, but often choose not to.
I wonder if someone who was raised as a woman and socialized as a woman, if they can suddenly call themselves a “man” with a sex change and a few hormones? The same applies to a man who was raised and socialized as a man who suddenly call themselves a “woman”. So if I put a dog suit on a cat, does that make it a dog? I’m not really sure how to think about this.
Has anyone on this site ever read Ivan E. Coyotes books?
I just hope Chaz never regrets it, which by the way has happened to others.
Nope, still a FEMALE. Always has been and always will be.
Just to be clear, Chaz isn’t wearing a man suit. He didn’t Jame Gumm fashion himself a man suit with hacked off bits of Penn & Teller. He didn’t slip into it and pretend derangedly to be a man.
He has undergone a long and sometimes painful process to become a man. He actually had his bits and his hormones altered to fit what his mind and brain have been telling him he is. He’s taken steps to help his outside match what his inside tells him he’s always been.
Nor is he trying to be a monkey so the dog in cat suit argument is fairly ignorant.
For those calling him still a female, I’m so very happy for you that you are comfortable in your skin and secure enough in your sexhood. I’m so glad you feel exactly at home in yourself that there is absolutely nothing about yourself that you would change. Good thing you don’t want to change your hair color, skin color, eye color, height, weight, boob size, shoe size… It must be wonderful to be so happy and at ease with exactly everything about yourself. Being so in love with just exactly how you are must be grand!
Because you are so perfect, let’s use imagination. Find a mirror or reflection, (stay with me) now look at someone else’s reflection. Imagine now if that was you! Really, that person over there is now you. Doesn’t feel like you, doesn’t look how you feel you look, that person is strange and odd and not at all you (but we are imagining IT IS you.) You know who you are… and that relection isn’t even close.
Now, the medical community can help you with hormones; to change the shape of your body to what you feel is you. Plastic surgeons can help even more with turning that stranger’s reflection into who you see in your minds eye. They can help you to switch out a skirt sign for one with legs, so that you, when you need it the most, can decipher the foreign language signs on the washrooms.
They can help you to be more like yourself, more comfortable in your own skin. Because that stranger staring back at you is not you! You must be strong, because others will judge you harshly for not being happy and at ease with yourself. But you know that is not your reflection in the mirror. That is not you. So, do you stay a stranger to yourself to make others happy. Or do you do what you can, to be who you are?
I think you should take a moment and be thankful you are so perfect.
I was so disappointed to see such… um… ignorant? or… insensitive? messages on such an accepting website. I mean I understand how people could be uncomfortable about things they have never experienced. The thing is… I have never met a transgender person, yet I would without a doubt accept such a someone as an equal human being. (In my mind… NO SHIT.)
I’m a gay man (aged 20. If Celebitchy or Kaiser were reporting about me I might be a ‘boy’, who knows.)
When I was about 4 I wanted to be a girl. Tutus, Barbies and all the rest of it. I was charismatic, popular, the leader of the 9-year-old group. I kept it up. Then when I was about 13 I *prayed* to a God I did not believe in (me and my family are atheists), praying that PLEASE I would not end up gay. I literally begged that I could *at least* be bisexual. That did not work out.
Pretty soon, I realised I was a massive gay. Nothing I could do. (And since then, I’ve harboures an irrational disdain for those people who only discover their true sexuality later in life.) I know I have no right to judge, but I still do. I’ve been gay since I was about 13. Secretly. When I meet 20-year-old guys who are (obviously? presumably?) at LEAST bi, if not gay, I feel kind of cheated. :s I know it’s my fault. But I’m not some straight-girl’s-best-friend-movie-gay. I experience many more rejections than happy endings.
However, I feel incredibly lucky (considering my early years) that I am totally at ease with my gender. I could easily have felt female. Transgender people are not circus freaks. They are people like you and I (and yes, I’m talking to everybody) who feel deeply, deeply uncomfortable in the skin they were born into. Imagine yourself – Twimom, GossipGay, whatever. Then imagine you (as you are now) were born into a body of the opposite sex. It must be SO hard to deal with. Have some compassion.
Ben, I totally agree with you. I’ve had my fair share of homophobia thrown my way, but it’s nothing to the transphobia out there. Two of my friends are trans, and watching the shit that they’ve had to go through has made me so grateful that my sex and gender match up!
##If you can still have a uterus and can get pregnant, which I don’t know if Chaz can, you’re a women. End of story. ##
So, women that have hysterectomies or are post-menopausal are not considered women to you, meme?
Really. Really? Whatever makes the “dude” happy I guess. It reminds me of many of the news outlets claiming a “man” gave birth.. twice! What a bunch of bull that was – and this as well. She put a cork in it, sew a tassle on, and started hormone therapy. Still won’t make you something you were never born to be. She is just lying to herself. Period.
Poor Cher so disgraced by her daughter. This is slap in the face to Cher basically saying i dont like how you bore me. I dont care of she is gay but changing sex?? you are messed up if you change sex period!
What you are born is what you remain until death regardless of what drugs you take and what surgeries you have. Poor messed up girl.
@Kim – What?? Cher has been nothing but supportive of Chaz’s transition. She doesn’t feel disgraced or slapped in the face AT ALL, you goddamn bigot.
shannon, im telling you, its amazing to see someone out there who’s studied gender studies and actually knows what theyre talking about!
i didnt know of the fourth, fifth and sixth genders but that’ll be something to bring up to my teacher on monday!
thankyou! 🙂
i think its lovely that chaz should be allowed to live his life the way he wants to. congrats to him and his girlfriend.
Chaz was large before all of this, and might I add, he transitioned just in time because the no neck look is right in line with the male sector, jock or not.