I’m sure everyone got the news yesterday that Sonny and Cher’s kid Chastity Bono is now transitioning and going by Chaz. It made a lot of sense for Chaz to make an official announcement rather that have random paparazzi pics of him with facial hair show up in various tabloids. And I’m gleeful about the public awareness of trans issues his transitioning will bring.
Let me just say this, as far as I’m concerned, public awareness of trans issues is a national God damn emergency. Seriously. Obama needs to name a gender czar. Yes of course I want gay marriage, of course I want employment non-discrimination, I want to feel safe on the streets, I want the same god damn right as everyone else, but get everyone on board with gender awareness and I bet we’ll get those things a lot faster.
Judging from a post I read on Gawker this morning, some folks out there might need a little refresher. For the record, gender is what’s in your head. Sex is what’s between your legs. Masculinity and femininity are awesome things, but we made them up. Feel free to enjoy either one you like, or some mix of both. Don’t worry about what you are carrying around in your knickers; that has nothing to do with your gender unless you want it to.
Regardless of the type of queer you are, this should be important to you because a great deal of homophobia stems from society’s ignorance of and subsequent fear of gender transgression.
And finally, I want a transgender issues public awareness campaign so I wont ever log on to Gawker again and read that someone is “planning to undergo a sex change operation.” I think coverage of Christine Jorgenson’s return to the U.S. was probably more progressive than that.
A public awareness campaign about gender isn’t going to take that long or take that much money. Throw up a few animated cartoons on the weekends. Make a Schoolhouse Rock about Chaz, play some Cher songs in the background, like “I Got Dude, Babe” and “Gypsies, Trannies and Thieves.” Put some signs up in the subway. Just give people the basics and they can figure out the rest for themselves.
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Gawker’s post about the story this morning was so embarrassing for them. Yes, I understand that Gawker isn’t the height of relevant media, it’s just Gawker. But I always assume that kind of backwards obliviousness exists only in people who are completely isolated and don’t have access to things like the internets.
Whichever ignorant moron wrote the Gawker post issued a helpless plea, as if to underscore his own idiocy: “Someone out there please educate us on this, as we straights are woefully ignorant of such things.” So ok buddy, here’s the deal: Chaz is a dude. He’s already a dude. He’s probably known he was a dude for a good long time but only recently came around to the idea of taking testosterone and completing his transition.
The Gawker writer also whines, “Writing this post was extremely difficult because we had no idea if we're supposed to refer to Chaz as a he or a she.” So, his name is Chaz right? That’s a guys name, isn’t it? So what does that tell you?”
As far as the “sex change operation” goes, well for the majority of trans guys what that actually means is taking testosterone and having a double mastectomy, also known as top surgery. Testosterone will lower his voice, change the shape of his jawline, cause his clit to grow larger, give him facial hair, testosterone even changes the shape of your feet. As for bottom surgery, or phalloplasty, that’s a little less common. It’s extremely expensive and phalloplasty options are limited. Some guys choose to have metoidioplasty over phalloplasty because it’s slightly less complicated and keeps the parts you were born with intact so you don’t risk loss of sensation. I have no idea whether or not Chaz Bono intends to have bottom surgery, top surgery or what, but his masculinity certainly doesn’t dependent on it.
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