Chaz Bono Addresses Boston LGBT Event

Chaz Bono was the Key Note Speaker at the Boston Spirit Magazine Fifth Annual LGBT Executive Networking Night. The event was attended by over 1,000 local LGBT corporate professionals at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, making it the largest LGBT business event in New England. Bono shared his transition experience saying he never identified with the gender into which he was born. “It’s always been a constant my whole life. It was there as early as I have memory, that I felt like a boy,” Chaz said. It wasn’t until 2001 that he began to realize he didn’t have a strong female identity & in order to feel comfortable in his own skin he needed to make transition from female to male. “It’s so uncomfortable to walk through life when inside you feel like one way & the entire world around you is seeing you as something else,” he added. The movie BOYS DON’T CRY was where he first saw someone born female identifying as a male & he decided to make the transition. The decision to become a male was immediate but because of his very public life, from being the child of Sonny & Cher, he still wrestled with the actual action of taking hormone supplements & undergoing multiple surgeries. Chaz said, “There’s no worse feeling than knowing what to do & being too afraid of what other people would think to do it. I got to a place where I had a moment of clarity, of understanding, that what you thought of me ultimately didn’t matter.” Chaz concluded his speech by saying the most important thing is to be true to yourself. Bono is a fierce LGBT Activist & feels it is his calling to be a role model for our transgender community especially after his brave appearance on DANCING WITH THE STARS last season. Chaz has written 3 books, including “Transition,” released in 2011, which details his 40-year gender identity struggle. He also shared his life in the Emmy nominated documentary “Becoming Chaz” & serves on the Board of GLAAD. Check OUT our Red Carpet coverage of the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards in NYC....

At the GLAAD Media Awards we chatted with the winners of the Vito Russo Award producing team of Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (Chicago, Hairspray, Smash), NY INK’s Robear, figure skater Johnny Weir, actress Kim Wayans talked about her role playing the mother on PARIAH which won the award for Outstanding Film- Limited Release, CHOPPED host Ted Allen shared his spin on LGBT issues & we concluded with Jay Manuel sharing his advice for LGBTQ teens faced with the bully epidemic & more @ OUTTAKE VOICES™