Chaz Bono Quotes

I wanted to show America a different kind of man. If there was someone like me when I was growing up, my whole life would have been different.

As you get older it's more confusing. Suddenly, there's more pressure to fit in to your assigned gender.

Deep down, my mom had long suspected I was gay ... Much of her anger and hurt came from her sense of betrayal that she was the last to be told.

So when I was about 13 or 14, I realized I was attracted to women and then made the assumption that I was a lesbian, and didn't realize that that wasn't the case. It was the fact that I was a man and a heterosexual man. The issue wasn't my sexual orientation, but rather my gender identity.

Until I really accepted this about myself and got over any of my own transphobia that I had, I really felt like I wouldn't be accepted. I thought I would ruin my life.

Parents have to understand: if your kid isn't you, don't blame the kid.

I was never religious.

What mom cares about most is that I'm happy, healthy and enjoying my life.

I want to create a place where trans people and our allies could come together to share experiences, information and ideas. Being transgender or loving someone who is transgender can be challenging in our society and I hope that members of this site will also use this space as a place to support and encourage each other. Together, we can strengthen our community and open the hearts and minds of others.

I always had this idea that, 'Sure, I wished I was a boy and felt more like a boy and all of that.' But I wasn't, so I would deal with it. And I for some reason thought there were other lesbians that felt that way and that was just part of that community.

Gender is between your ears and not between your legs.

I've been embraced by a new community. That's what happens when you're finally honest about who you are; you find others like you.

There's a gender in your brain and a gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those things are in alignment. For transgender people, they're mismatched. That's all it is. It's not complicated, it's not a neurosis. It's a mix-up. It's a birth defect, like a cleft palate.

In school I related to boys.

I felt like one of the boys. My friends were boys. In school I related to boys.

When I was really little, it was very clear to me that I felt like a boy, and my friends were all boys.

People who don't have gender dysphoria aren't going to catch it by watching me dance on television.

Fears are not facts.

Obviously the transgender movement has not progressed in the way that the gay and lesbian movement has. But I'm an activist - that's just the kind of person I am.

I'm just a regular guy. All these ideas that children shouldn't watch me, I'm going to be confusing, all this stuff, it's crazy.

I feel really good, I feel like a man now, and I'm really happy.