I don't watch a lot of television, not only because I don't actually own a TV, but also because I don't have time for mind-numbing programs like “Dancing With The Stars.”
But I am vastly outnumbered, 16.5 million to one. The show has come up recently, and not because it suddenly got better or I found it worth my time to watch.
Chaz Bono, the child of Sonny and Cher, is dancing on the show and, according to my research, he's not doing that great.
But that's not what everyone is up in arms about. Bono is transgendered. Born Chastity Bono, he underwent sexual reassignment surgery and became Chaz. Begin the maelstrom of hate and anger and bizarre proclamations from TV personalities like Dr. Keith Ablow, who said, “It's possible that if someone is celebrated, and lifted to heroic proportions like that of a civil rights leader, somebody who is somewhat uncomfortable with his or her gender, might say, 'You know what, I'm going down that road.'”
That totally makes sense.
Because undergoing massively invasive surgery and months of hormone therapy, experiencing emotional pain as loved ones shun you, people calling you a freak and struggling with who you are as a human being, that's totally something I would decide to do on a whim after watching a TV show about dancing.
I am not shocked that this is the reaction to a transgendered man being on a hugely popular TV show.
I am not shocked that the Internet may have exploded a little when The American Family Association caught word of this.
I am not shocked that, instead of talking about other things like actual news, the fact that a man who is not very famous wants to dance on TV, but happens to be a little outside of normal is getting coverage.
Rather, I'm just really disappointed.
I had hoped, and maybe this is naïve of me, but I had hoped that in a time when “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” was repealed, in a time when more and more states are legalizing same-sex marriage and when countries like Portugal — Roman Catholic, very religious, old-time values — can legalize same-sex marriage, perhaps we could move past getting excited when someone who is not heterosexual wants to do something in public.
Bryan Fischer, the director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association, one of the loudest voices against not only Bono but also homosexuals and members of the LGBTQ community in general, wrote this in a blog post on the AFA website this month: “America must choose between homosexuality and religious liberty, because we cannot have both. America must choose between homosexuality and freedom of speech, because we cannot have both. America must choose between homosexuality and freedom, because we cannot have both.”
When will our culture stop treating people who do not fit in within the “norms of society” like freaks?
Bono wants to be a man; he feels more comfortable in that skin and feels happier that way.
Who are we to judge him, to subject him to scorn, horror or complain about his existence?
But perhaps worse than this are the claims that homosexuality is some sort of contagion.
It supposedly will corrupt the moral foundation of the country simply by existing.
Isn't it time we left this issue alone and accept that people are different and that's OK?
Reach the columnist at omcquarr@asu.edu
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