Chaz Bono

American advocate, writer, musician and actor, and the only child of entertainers Cher and Sonny Bono. Originally known as their daughter and named Chastity Sun Bono, today he is known as Chaz Bono, a transgender man (or "trans man"). Between 2008 and 2010, he underwent female-to-male gender transition. In May 2010, he legally changed his gender and name. A documentary on Bono's experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and later made its television debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Bono was named Chastity Sun Bono after the film Chastity, which was produced by Sonny and in which Cher (in her first solo role in a feature film) played a bisexual woman. When Sonny and Cher divorced in 1975, Cher had legal custody of Chastity but the young Bono was always allowed to spend time with both parents. Sonny made a point of living nearby in order that Chastity had free access to see him. Shielded from the glare of publicity while growing up, Chastity Bono graduated from the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in 1987 and went to the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Bono began writing songs with a pal, Chance, and they formed a group with four young men. In January 1994, Bono became the vocalist and co-leader of a rock group called "Ceremony." The group's debut album was entitled "Hand Out Your Poetry." In 1994, Chas' lover died of cancer after a painful battle. A year later Bono came out publicly as a lesbian in the gay publication, "The Advocate." The article that Bono wrote was life changing.

In 1996 Bono joined GLAAD, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, becoming the entertainment industry's unofficial advisor on all things homosexual, wielding growing clout in Hollywood. A reasonable, not rabid, activist, Bono aimed at aiding an increase of understanding and tolerance. Bono worked as their media director until leaving in 1998 to pursue other interests.