Oprah Winfrey broke down and exposed her emotional side when Chaz Bono appeared on her talk show this week to discuss the end stages of her sex change transition from woman to man.
When Big “O” quizzed Chaz (formerly known as Chastity Bono) about her mother’s feelings on the subject of the highly-publicized transformation, her response caused Oprah Winfrey to openly cry.
Apparently, shortly after Chaz started to inject testosterone to enhance her male physicality (so that her body would match up with her legal sexual identity change registered at the local courthouse this year) her voice noticeably changed and fell into a lower register.
Chaz poignantly recalled that the loss of her once-familiar voice upset her mother.
In fact, one day Cher frantically called up Chaz on the telephone with an unusual request.
“Do you still have the outgoing message you recorded on your telephone answering machine before the sex change,” Cher quizzed her son.
When Chaz responed in the negative, Cher was quite upset.
“I’m never going to hear that voice again,” she wept.
At this juncture in the interview, Oprah’s eyes welled up.
Though not a mother herself, Oprah recognized how distressing that scenario must have been for the Pop Diva, when the shocking events unfolded.
"There has to be a period of grieving. She lost a daughter," Oprah summarized solemnly.
It was a rivetting Television moment with no-holds barred.
Meanwhile, Chaz expressed relief over the fact there was a great outpouring of love that washed over her once the decision was made to transition to a man at that particularly stressful moment in his life.
“I literally went through a primal scream,” Chaz acknowledged to the rapt audience, sitting on the edge of their seats.
And, the support also arrived in spades, the day the slated broadcast on Oprah Winfrey's talk-show arrived.
“This morning my mother sent an e-mail in which she addressed me – for the first time – as Chaz,” she confided.
In the final analysis, Cher is coming around, but - understandably - it has been a difficult row to hoe!
Curiously, Cher allegedly didn’t have a problem accepting the fact originally that Chaz may be a lesbian.
But, a man in a woman’s body, was something else entirely to reckon with.
Who knew?
Actually, I recall watching Chastity on the Sonny & Cher show years ago when I was in my twenties.
It never escaped my attention that Chastity was a bit huskey physically - and quite possibly - going to grow up to be a lesbian.
Whether that was the perception of middle America, I don’t know.
To me, there was a pink elephant on stage, but everyone ignored it.
For Chastity’s sake?
Today, it appears that Mr. Bono is comfortable in his skin.
Like Cher – who is adamant that waking up one day in a man’s body would be a troubling dilemma to deal with – Chaz has obviously found her place (is "home").
For those who are interested in how that healing occurred, Bono has pieced together a documentary to enlighten the teaming masses about the tricky transition, on sale now in DVD format.
Catch it if you can!
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