Chaz Bono Video Interview On ‘Transition,’ Cher, Becoming A Man

Transition author Chaz Bono, 43, born as Chastity to Cher and Sonny Bono, has lived much of his life in the public eye. Though he came out as a lesbian in 1995, it was around 2000 when he began to consider himself transgendered. He didn’t undergo the full transformation until 2009 out of concern over the reaction he might receive. “I just had a tremendous amount of fear of what other people would think of me if I transitioned, and knowing that I would have to do it in the public eye was something that really scared me and I thought that I would get a lot of criticism from people,” Bono told uInterview exclusively. “And I guess kind of slowly over time I worked through a lot of that stuff, and mostly, I just came to understand that I needed to take care of myself and my needs first and not be so concerned of what other people thought of me.”