CHAZ BONO, American actor and Gay and trangender rights activist; The only child from entertainer Cher’s marriage to Sonny Bono. Need we say anything more? Well, actually, yes, we do.
In 1995, after several years of being outed as Lesbian by the tabloid press, Bono publicly self-identified as such in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate, eventually going on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and to others in two books. Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families includes his coming out account. The memoir The End of Innocence discusses his outing, music career, and partner Joan’s death from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Between 2008 and 2010, Bono underwent female-to-male gender transition. A two-part Entertainment Tonight feature in June 2009 explained that his transition had started a year before. In May 2010, he legally changed his gender and name. A documentary on Bono’s experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In September 2011, he became a competitor on the 13th of season of the US version of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional ballroom dancer Lacey Schwimmer.