The Death of Chastity Bono

I can get a little bit claustrophobic. I don't like being in a situation where I feel I can't get out. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be trapped in a body I didn't feel was mine.

That being said, I am taking Chastity Bono's gender transformation to Chaz Bono a little bit hard.

It was a huge treat for me to be allowed to stay up for the end of the Sonny and Cher Show. The end was my favorite part. It was when Chastity, who is one month older than I, would come out and stand with her parents as they sang, "I Got You Babe." She would come out in an outfit matching her mother's and say, "Good night, everybody. God bless you," in her sweet little Chastity voice. Oh. Oh. Oh. I wanted to be that little girl.

Can you imagine being three and having Cher for a mother? I'm not talking about all the drama with Sonny, or Cher's strange, brief marriage to one of the Allman Brothers. I am simply talking about Chastity's play clothes closet. It must have been a thing to behold, and now we read she hated all of it. She preferred the outfits that more closely matched her father.

I don't mean any disrespect to what must have been an unusual and more than likely painful childhood to say the least. It just . . . I mean . . . it's an old vision I am having a little trouble letting go.



So much change.