Chaz Bono :: On becoming a man

Chaz Bono has lived a life in the public eye, but never more so than this past week when he was everywhere in the media. The reason? A new documentary & book about his transitioning. EDGE spoke to Bono about the doc & book.

Never being one to bask in the spotlight the way of her famous parents (Cher and Sonny Bono), Chaz Bono is now the center of attention by choice for sharing his story of going from Chastity to Chaz during his transition from female to male.

In both the documentary "Becoming Chaz" (which is currently airing on OWN) and his new memoir, "Transitioning: The Story of How I Became A Man", Bono has opened up his life in the most honest and brave way for one sole reason - to educate people on what it means to be transgender and finally getting to be the person you've always felt you were.

EDGE's Jim Halterman had a chat with Chaz recently to talk about the making of the documentary, how people still need to learn the difference between homosexuality and being transgender and how Cher has dealt with these profound changes.

Camera-shy

EDGE: You probably had a lot of choices to film your story but what was it about Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato that made them the right choice to take the helm of Becoming Chaz?

Chaz Bono: They just really understood the subject matter, I felt. I had seen their documentaries but really had been a fan of their work since I saw "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" and I started to investigate more of what they've done. They did a really great series called "TransGeneration" about a group of transgender college kids and I thought they would do the best job.

EDGE: You say in the movie that you don't love your picture taken or being in the spotlight. So why do this movie where you are front and center?

Chaz Bono: If I had a choice in the matter, I would have done this privately and I would've done it years ago but since I don't have that luxury, I wanted to try to do something special and important and try to help the community and help to educate people on this issue and shed light on something that most people don't really understand.

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Watch Chaz Bono on "Good Morning America:"

Changes in perception

EDGE: As a gay man, I'm still learning about what it means to be transgender. People assume transgender people are gay including your Mom when she initially had talked to the press. Can you talk about that and why people get it confused?

Chaz Bono: They're just very separate issues. Sexual orientation is about who you're attracted to and your gender identity is how you feel your self to be and they're very different. Even for myself, when I was young I mistook my attraction for women as an issue of sexual orientation and not a gender identity issue.

EDGE: Do you see the overall perception changing in our society due to projects like this documentary and even Lisa Ling's recent look at being transgender that also aired on OWN? Are you people becoming more aware?

Chaz Bono: I think it's just starting. I think the transgender movement and people understanding about it culturally are just starting to happen. I think a lot of people really still don't exactly understand but I think they're just starting to get a little bit more comfortable with the idea.

EDGE: Was OWN always the best place for the documentary or were there other places you shopped it?

Chaz Bono: We had absolutely no idea where it was going to air. We just decided to do this. We had taken a few meetings and we weren't getting what we were looking for and so we decided to just make it and then sell it. I don't think we really knew where it would end up but we had faith that would end up someplace.

EDGE: Going through the whole act of transitioning, how important is therapy during that journey just to keep your emotions in check?

Chaz Bono: I think therapy is important to make sure that there isn't some other issue that you're not understanding and to really be diagnosed properly. I'm a therapy person. That's just the kind of person that I am. I feel comfortable with that and, to me, therapy is just a part of healthy lifestyle but I know not everyone feels the way I do. As long as you're comfortable doing this, I don't think therapy is really a necessary thing other than to really diagnose it. It's really up to the individual. I have a lot of other issues that I had to deal with so it took years to do this.

EDGE: Do you feel like your journey is just beginning with transitioning?

Chaz Bono: I know that the physical changes are just beginning to happen but I feel very comfortable and stable and I feel like maybe now I get to live the rest of my life the way I want to but I don't feel like I'm at the beginning of this process. I'm very, very comfortable with the way I am now.

EDGE: One of the facts in the documentary is that it was just 1999 when the medical condition for transgender was changed so it would no longer say that being transgender was a frame of mind. That's really not that long ago! Even the gay movement is further along than that, right?

Chaz Bono: It is still evolving but there are still, of course, people that don't feel that way and there are people who don't acknowledge the same thing about being gay [and] that you can cure it. But, yes, we are definitely at least 20 years behind the gay rights movement.

Watching old self?

EDGE: In the documentary, you have your breasts removed. This might be a silly question but do you miss your old body at all?

Chaz Bono: No, not even for a second. [My breasts] felt wrong on my body from the time they grew in so, no, there was never any possibility of my keeping them.

EDGE: Outside of the impact of the transitioning, your relationship with your girlfriend, Jenny, was also going through some bumps in the road. Did you think that that would be a part of the documentary?

Chaz Bono: No, not at all! I don't think the filming took any toll but what took a toll was just how to readjust to each other and going through a lot all at once. It wasn't just me transitioning but also Jenny in grad school and that pressure and Jenny falling off the wagon and that pressure and the way I reacted to things. We had to learn how to communicate with each other and how to be with each other.

EDGE: How do you feel when you see photos of yourself as a little girl on your Mom and Dad's TV show or just in your pre-transitioned self?

Chaz Bono: I don't have much of a problem seeing them. The pictures that are hard for me to look at are from five years before transitioning. Seeing those are hard. At that point, I knew that I needed to do this for myself.

EDGE: I interviewed your Mom for "Burlesque" and she mentioned the documentary but even then she kept correcting herself because she was getting the pronouns mixed up. Has she gotten better with that?

Chaz Bono: She has, actually.

EDGE: How are things between the two of you? Has she fully accepted this or is it also a process for her?

Chaz Bono: I think it is a process that she's going through but I think as time goes on she's been more and more comfortable but that is really to be expected. It's a process for me to come to grips with it and so to a parent it's definitely a process. It's kind of a grieving process, too.

EDGE: How would your Dad have reacted to your transitioning if he were still with us?

Chaz Bono: I think that he probably would have had a process to go through, too, and I think that like my Mom, it would progressively get better and eventually get to a place of total acceptance.

EDGE: What's next for you?

Chaz Bono: I can't really talk about it yet but there is more stuff to come.

"Becoming Chaz" will be airing next on OWN on May 21st at both 8pm et/pt and 11pm et/pt. Chaz's memoir, "Transition: The Story of How I Became A Man", is available in bookstores everywhere.

Watch Chaz Bono and Johnny Weir at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in LA: