Quotes from Chaz Bono

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.

I've waited my whole life to be able to have body hair - but I never thought I'd have back hair. But what are you going to do, right?

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

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

I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff.

It really bothers me when I see people doing my mother in drag. I mean, just imagine if you saw people doing that with your mother.

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

For me, it was never a question of whether or not I was transgender. It was a question of what I'd be able to handle transitioning and having to do it in the public eye. One of the issues that was hard for me to overcome was the fear of that.

I don't have the luxury of doing things privately.

I always felt like the male from the time I was a child. There wasn't much feminine about me.

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?

I came out around 25 publicly.

I had felt uncomfortable as a woman my whole life.

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

Gender is between your ears and not between your legs.

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.

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

It felt as if my body was, like, literally betraying me because I went from a very athletic, straight-up-and-down little kid to a very curvaceous woman, and it was just horrifying to me.

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.

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.

Around 2001, I started analyzing lesbians. I started to realize that even really butch-acting or -dressing women still had a strong female identity that I never had.

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.

A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again; that's not the case in my family.