Chaz Bono Quotes

I didn't understand how difficult it would be to transition in the public eye and look back at pre-transition videos - it's sort of humiliating and painful.

For years I've known at some point it's very likely the shoe would drop. Maybe someone would guess that I'm trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned.

When I realised I was transgender I was so afraid of what my transition would do to everyone else in my life and how they would react to it and would I be rejected?

My dream was, start young, take hormones, live as a woman, try and become as passable as possible, bury your past, change your friends. Now I've realised that I don't have to be ashamed of my past.

I feel like the most fascinating parts of a trans life take place after the decision to transition. They take place when you're in this new body, in this new life, and you start realizing things.

When you live this trans experience, there's a point and time in your life that you almost stop developing because you don't know where to go.

There have been actresses who transitioned and nobody knew. But for me, with everybody knowing my history, it will be harder. I'm sure there are some great scripts calling for an ultra-glamorous woman. And I'm prepared to be ultra-glamorous.

I thought, transgender people are much worse off than I am. That's why they're willing to risk everything to be who they are. But the older I got, the harder it got to stay in my body.

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.

During my sophomore year at American University, I was elected president of the student body. At the same time, I was struggling with my identity and whether or not to come out as transgender.

These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual. People in the gym, people I train with, it's been great, it's been awesome. I'm just a woman to them. I don't want that to go away. It's unfortunate that it has to.

There's power in naming yourself, in proclaiming to the world that this is who you are. Wielding this power is often a difficult step for many transgender people because it's also a very visible one.

Being gay and coming up in New Orleans was not easy. At first I was very terrified and very timid.

I think being a teenager is a difficult journey in and of itself, but being transgender makes it that much harder.

Luckily for me the public have known me before my transition and I've always had the same body type.

Everyone's journey to coming out as transgender is different. For me, I've know that I'm transgender my entire life.

I want the public to know how it feels, the fear of being scrutinized, of being outed. The fear of what happens when you come out and the media puts you under a microscope. It's crippling. You get lost.

That's one of the biggest fears a lot of trans people have if they decide to come out, that they're making themselves unlovable and that they'll never have a relationship again.

It's funny. Some people now are like, 'Why would you transition? Why can't you just be comfortable how you were born?' That was my logic, but at a certain point, I realized that I was born uncomfortable.

On May 6, 2013, I started hormone replacement therapy and began transitioning. I was very depressed, which is not uncommon for people with gender dysphoria. Two hours after my first estrogen injection, my depression went away for the first time in my life.

Everyone gets cards at the beginning of life. I am transgender, I decided to be honest and tell everyone about it, and that's it.

I cop a fair bit of flack for going from 'such a babe to such a boy'. I wanted to share (that) story.

I always have a very strong sense of shaming oneself, and you can do that a lot in the public eye, so it's best avoided at all costs I think.

I think it's always good for gay people to come out, but it's also understandable why people might choose not to do so.

Compared to being caught in the wrong body, being plagued by 'dysmorphic OCD thoughts,' being gay is commonplace and mostly accepted. What once seemed unimaginable and shameful has been revealed to be perfectly normal.