Also of note: a little history on Chaz Bono and his mom.
Back when Chaz was still presenting as his AGAB, he came out as a lesbian. This was in….I’m gonna say 1990? 1991? I don’t remember exactly. A point in time where that was Really A Terrible Fucking Thing, is the point here.
Cher freaked right the fuck out.
And her fan base basically went “you’re a gay icon and you’re out here doing this? For fucking shame, Cher.”
And it kind of took her aback, and she shut up, and when we heard her talk about it again it was “yeah it was hard to accept but…” which is considered gross now but was pretty astonishing in a world where Ellen DeGeneres couldn’t yet come out of the closet.
Skip ahead to the early 2010s, when Chaz went “so, um. Actually? Not a lesbian. I’m a straight man.” Again: at this point, mainstream trans activism wasn’t a thing. This was as wild a thing to do as when he came out as a lesbian.
AND CHER SHUT RIGHT THE FUCK UP.
The first time she said anything about it at all was like six months later, and it was something along the lines of “well I’ve been using ‘she’ for over 40 years so sometimes I forget but I’ve really been working on it because it makes my son happy to know he’s my son.” And to the best of my knowledge, she’s only ever had a single public slip-up, and it was at a point where she was using Chaz’s deadname in a story about his childhood. Someone told her that’s not a good thing to do AND SHE NEVER DID IT AGAIN.
Cher isn’t just out here doing the right thing. Cher is out here LEARNING the right thing. You think she spent those six months sulking? You don’t know Cher very well. I’d bet a nickel she spent those six months finding accessible options (yes, Cher is disabled, surprise) for every GLAAD publication she could get her hands on.
She is a gold standard of activism. “I fucked up once, it was a learning experience, I’m going to not do that again and show how to not do that.”
Give credit where it’s due.
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