Chastity Bono, daughter of Cher and
Sonny Bono, is officially Chaz Bono after legally filing to alter his
name and gender in a Santa Monica court Thursday.
According the Bono's lawyer, Kristina
Wertz of the Transgender Law Center, the court granted the petition.
“Chaz now has a court name change and
a court order recognizing him as male,” Wertz said in a statement.
“This is an important step in his transition and will allow him to
change a variety of his identity documents to show who he truly is.”
Last June, eight months into his gender
reassignment, Bono came out transgender.
Appearing on Good Morning America,
he said: “I feel so much more comfortable than I've ever been.
I've felt male as far back as I can remember.”
The entire female to male transition is
expected to last four to five years.
Bono said he always felt male: “I
felt like one of the boys. My friends were boys. In school I
related to boys.”
“At 13, 14 it was real clear at that
point that I was attracted to women,” he said. “And so I was
attracted to women, I am a woman, I guess I'm a lesbian.”
The forty-year-old entertainer and
respected gay rights activist came out at the age of 18 to her
mother, who reportedly was troubled at first with the news. But it
would be another eight years before she announced being a lesbian to
the world in an interview with gay monthly the
Advocate.
Bono said he'll continue to advocate
for the LGBT community. “I'm just a little more focused on the 'T'
now than I am on the 'L' and the 'G,'” he said.