Man, Oh Man, Chaz

I was in the studio audience when Chaz Bono stopped by The Wendy Williams Show. Chaz, Sonny and Cher's kid, has been chatting up all the talk show hosts lately to promote his new memoir Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man and corresponding film Becoming Chaz, which documents his transformation from female to male. The vision of Wendy -- the "drag queen" of the disenfranchised, herself -- and Chaz together on stage got me thinking about the many obstacles that individuals face in the pursuit of their own happiness.

Wendy kicked off the conversation by commenting on Chaz's weight loss, mom, and love relationship before getting down to the business of him being a man. "What's it like to shave your face," she asked. To the studio audience -- who may have never known him as Chastity -- Chaz looked like a man. He sounded like a man. He crossed his legs like a man. Man, oh man, some might've even called him the man: the rich, white one responsible for all of the world's oppression, inequality, and sadness. Yet, he faced down more discrimination in a day than I probably have in my entire life.

More...