The transgender son of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening has
claimed that Chaz Bono is a misogynist.
Writing on his blog Super Mattachine, 19 year-old Stephen - who
was born Kathlyn - slammed the former Dancing with the Stars
contestant for claiming transgender people were effectively born
with a birth defect.
Bono made the comments in an interview with the New York Times,
where he likened being transgender to "a cleft palate".
In a public response, the teenager said: "I do not have a birth
defect. If you feel like you have a birth defect, fine. That's how
you feel. Go feel that,' he wrote on his blog.
"Do not put it onto me. Do not define me that way, and do not
define other trans people that way unless they claim that
label."
He added: "Chaz has appointed himself as the representative of a
group of people who are not all like him. He has said
misogynistic... things about gender. I take particular issue with
his comments on trans embodiment and on women."
Stephen concluded: 'Chaz is a misogynist. He is a trans man who
seems to believe that his female-assignedness and his female
socialisation makes him immune from being a misogynist, and he is
manifestly wrong.
'This man doesn't represent our community... The next time you
hear Chaz's name brought up in a conversation about trans issues,
point out the things he's said about surgery, 'birth defects,' and
women.
"Because I don't want a single person thinking this guy is the
best of us."
