Chastity Bono: A Case-Study in Gender Confusion?

NOTE: Mary Ann Kreitzer, the original author of this post, is a founder of the Catholic Media Coalition. She blogs at LesFemmes/The Truth. Her opinions are hers alone, and in no way reflect upon the opinion held by The Lion’s Historian editors and staff. This post was originally found through Spero News.

Chastity Bono, soon to be the transgendered Chas Bono, once said that it was hard to be raised in the chaos of the Sonny and Cher household. It may be that chaos, and the Lesbian adults in her childhood, who led to her recent decision.

Want to see a case study in how to create a lesbian/transgender/sexually confused individual? Just look at poor Chastity Bono. Her life began as a fairy tale, the little princess, first-born of the fabulously successful Sonny and Cher, TV royalty.

I remember watching The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour show in the 70s. Cher was exotic; Sonny was funny, the butt of Cher’s sarcasm. In retrospect, one can see that their snide nit-picking at each other for a cheap joke wasn’t really funny at all. But the closing hand-holding number, “I Got You, Babe,” always ended the show on a happy-clappy note.

And then there was Chastity, that adorable little blonde in frilly dresses. What a show stopper when she appeared with her parents often-times dressed like daddy. The series ran for three years until Sonny and Cher’s very public and very acrimonious divorce.

So what happened? Take one screwed up set of parents, emotional neglect, a dad who wanted a boy, and throw in a heavy dose of lesbianism with a seduction. Chastity described it herself in her aptly titled book The End of Innocence:

My mom wasn’t always around, since she was working, so Joan [Cher's lesbian friend] sort of filled in that gap … I just focused on the fact that I wasn’t getting enough attention, and I often felt lonely or abandoned. When I spent time with Joan, I felt like the center of attention… (pp. 10-11)

“Joan knew I was gay, of course — she’d figured that one out pretty quickly — and because she was older and more experienced, she gave me advice my peers couldn’t begin to offer. (I can even remember her girlfriend Leslie taking me aside once, when I was about fifteen, and telling me what to do sexually with a girl, because I was totally naive.)” (p.11)

And now Chastity has decided she’s Chas, a man trapped inside a woman’s body. She’ll become the boy her dad always wanted using medical technology to mutilate her body to make it more like a man’s. That “doctors” will participate in this travesty just further illustrates our cultural insanity. But why not? They kill fully-formed babies, what’s a few operations to make someone’s body match more closely his/her identity delusion.

Concerned Women for America has an interesting 2002 article that sums up poor Chastity’s life in one quote:

“It’s hard to be raised by nannies and in chaos.” — Chastity Bono

Chastity Bono illustrates the Biblical truth that “the sins of the parents are visited on the children.” Like many parents whose children “come out,” Cher, who originally was upset about Chastity’s choice, joined PFLAG, the support group for families and friends who promote the gay lifestyle. It is, no doubt, easier and less painful than recognizing her own responsibility and expressing sorrow and repentance.

I know what it’s like to goof up as a mom. I’ve made plenty of mistakes with my own five children and have apologized to them many times. No parent is perfect and no child is either. Love is always having to say you’re sorry. One thing that never helps is excusing our own past sins/mistakes by blessing our children’s bad choices. In the end that is a parent’s final betrayal.

Pray for Chastity Bono, for her mom, for the repose of her dad’s soul, her mixed-up Dad who helped make her the boy he always wanted, and for Cher’s lesbian friends who scandalized and seduced a precious little girl.

Chastity’s story isn’t finished yet. I’m offering the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for her today and for all who are caught up in the lies of the gay lifestyle. Those who come to repentance are channels of grace and witnesses of truth to others. May that be the ultimate end to this fractured fairy tale.