Chaz Bono's dancing partner on Dancing
with the Stars, Lacey Schwimmer, and lawyer Gloria Allred say the
fuss over Bono's appearance on the reality dancing competition is
overblown.
“To me it's ridiculous,” Schwimmer
told HLN's Dr. Drew. “I mean, he's just like everybody else. I
think people just need to let him be happy and dance on a little TV
show. It's not a big deal.”
Schwimmer's comments come after several
op-eds weighed in on the issue. Fox News contributor Keith Ablow
warned parents not to let their children watch the dancing
competition, because it would lead to confusion, while Chicago
Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper said there wasn't much to
worry about.
Author-activist Bono is the child of
gay icon Cher and the late entertainer-politician Sonny Bono. Bono
is a transgender man.
In his column, Ablow suggests Bono
should not be applauded for “asserting she is a man … any more
than a woman who believes she will be happier without arms, has them
removed and then continues to assert that she was right all along –
her self-concept was that of a double amputee. Now, all is well.”
Ablow's op-ed comes amid a firestorm of
protest. Bono, 42, has already refused to back out of the dancing
contest amid calls for a boycott of the show and its advertisers over
its casting. (Conservatives
are also fuming at the inclusion of openly gay fashion expert Carson
Kressley.)
During an appearance on ABC's Good
Morning America, Bono said: “I'm going to be dancing. I'm not
up there talking about anything other than dancing. People who
don't have gender dysphoria aren't going to catch it by watching me
dance on television.”
On Wednesday's Dr. Drew, civil
rights attorney Gloria Allred said she planned to dance with
transgender people at a viewing party on the night of the show's
premiere.
“I think it's outrageous that some
people who, I think, may be not as well educated as they could be,
are calling for children not to be able to watch Chaz on Dancing
with the Stars,” Allred said.
“In response to that, we are having
national viewing parties, we're going to have dance parties and have
one right here in LA. And I'm going to dance with every person who
would like to dance with me on September 19 when the show airs, who
has transitioned from a female to a male, or transitioned from male
to female or anyone else!” (The video is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)