Looking Back
PHOTO GALLERY: Snakkle Looks Back at Chaz Bono’s Fascinating Life and Career
Not many public figures are more interesting or inspiring than Chaz Bono—than the transgender advocate, who started his life as Chastity. Snakkle looks back at Bono's life in pictures. By Nina Hämmerling Smith
Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images
At the Outfest Awards Night (2005)
Bono was a presenter at the 2005 Outfest, which celebrates gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender films. One of Bono’s first public appearances after revealing that he was transitioning to male was at the 2009 Outfest, where he walked the red carpet with girlfriend Jennifer Elia.
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September 16, 2011 at 4:31 pm, Ramona Duffy-Ingalls said:
From what I can see, Chaz was Chaz from birth..and I am glad he has found who he is and is brave enough to step up and claim his life.
I am happy for him.
September 16, 2011 at 4:31 pm, Ramona Duffy-Ingalls said:
From what I can see, Chaz was Chaz from birth..and I am glad he has found who he is and is brave enough to step up and claim his life.
I am happy for him.
March 15, 2014 at 6:38 am, Aaron said:
I have absolutely no pblroem with Chaz and his transition whatsoever; and if I did, I would hope someone might help me understand the biological implications.However, I must admit I found myself groaning once I heard about Chaz yesterday b/c all I could think of were the narrow-minded, uneducated, uninformed, ignorant individuals who would go to town with this story and use it as an opportunity to further fuel the hate and intolerance fire. Wait’ll O’Reilly gets a hold of this story.The majority of individuals who I have come into contact with who are opposed or dare I say disgusted by transgender individuals simply will not educate themselves beyond what they think they already know about sexual identity, which is more often than not: what lies below your belt defines who you are and assigns your sexual identity; or, that God assigns your sexual identity for you.Over Memorial Day weekend I was at a bbq and somehow a discussion came up about a transgender man, and I must say that the majority of individuals had absolutely no insight as to how the brain assigns sex; as to how it maps one’s sexual identity. And that’s fine, I wouldn’t expect many individuals to be informed as to the biological processes of the brain’s development or say the Organizational-Activational Hypothesis, however when one is not willing to even consider that there may be a logical, biological explanation for such conditions, well then I can hardly stick around long enough to explain it. And if they pull the God card, then I’m out. My time would be better spent speaking to a catatonic. It’s like trying to explain and present the evidence to a racist/neo-nazi that the Holocaust in fact did happen. And so, at the BBQ I kept it simple: After one individual went on about how men testosterone this, and women estrogen that, and how each should stick to their own hormones, I shut down the know it all by telling this particular close-minded, righteous individual that it is in fact estrogen that masculinizes the brain. Suddenly, all you could hear were crickets. I wish I could have sold tickets, Deb. Now, as this was a quasi-artistic crowd, this particular individual was a bit more open than most when it came to actual evidence and so upon request, I spent the next hour explaining SRY, androgens, Wolffian/Mullerian ducts and the Organizational-Activational Hypothesis et al. I wish more people would be as open to learning the actual science behind the brain as this crowd was.Anyway, I won’t go on about the science or biological variables b/c I’m surely not bringing up anything you and some of your readers are not already aware of. However, I would encourage anyone who doesn’t know about the developmental, hormonal processes of the brain and how they apply to our biological development, to look into it before making sweeping judgments based on ignorance and regurgitated rhetoric.One doesn’t have to identify with the plight and struggles of a transgender individual in order to at least consider the biological and genetic variables that are associated with transgenderism, they simple need to expand upon black and white definitions and educate themselves to understand it’s not an absolute choice.Fantastic post and links, Deb.best,jenji