ABC Attacked by 'DWTS' Fans Over Chaz Bono Casting

[RandySF]

Bono, the only child of Sonny Bono and Cher, was born female but legally changed his gender and name last year. The announcement Monday that he would join the highly rated ABC dance competition immediately made him one of the highest-profile transgendered people in the world.

It also brought to the surface prejudices about Bono and others who have changed their gender, judging from the "Dancing With the Stars" message board. In hundreds of comments, Bono was the most common subject.

Also read: 'DWTS' Cast: Ricki Lake, Ron Artest, Kristin Cavallari, David Arquette & Nancy Grace

"HUGE HUGE fan of this show since season two and eagerly await each season to get my dancing/entertainment 'fix'!! But when I heard that Chaz Bono was going to be on, I was sick. Not that I have anything personally again her/him, I just don't want that lifestyle choice continually flaunted in the media esp ABC," went one typical anti-Bono comment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/31/idUS375149978920110831

[dionysus]

1. how biggoty of them.

[hedgehog]

2. i think that if Chaz Bono had been born in a male body, these

folks would be complaining about his casting because of his weight!


Life style choice?!!?!

Yeah, Chaz just woke up one day and chose to be male!

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[polmaven]

23. I'm not getting

what having Cher as his mother has to do with anything.....And...Chaz's "wobbly" parts? What in this WORLD is THAT about?

[humankarenball]

30. So if a trans person comes from a particular background

then they're not really trans? They just have "issues"?

And what is there to "buy" anyways?

good grief.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

31. WTF?? Are you serious? Stupid, crass and insulting.

Alerting.

[enlightenment]

3. Gads.

Is there anything quite as hateful as the bigot who insists that their bigotry is acceptable because they don't 'have anything personally" against the object of their derision?

Disgusting.

[RamboLiberal]

4. I may have to watch & vote for Chaz

Just to counter the bigots!

[Contrary1]

13. Or better yet...

Don't watch and still vote for Chaz!

[sudopod]

33. *thumbs up* nt

[hedgehog]

5. I'm disgusted by bigots flaunting their life style choice to be

ignorant assholes!

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I stopped watching DWTS as soon as I heard Palin, the kid, was to be on. However, I had

enough class not to post my decision on a message board.

[RKP5637]

7. Many would embrace, no doubt, the genetically perfect and cloned

American, that we would all look alike, think alike and be absolutely identical in every way conceivable. :puke:

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Would that make us socialist?

[RKP5637]

14. Yeah, I guess so! That would freak out the baggers. n/t

[undeterred]

8. David Arquette is a drug abuser and Nancy Grace is a lunatic.

Now there's some lifestyle choices.

[dembotoz]

9. i should be concerned but i really hate that show

[gratuitous]

11. Surest sign someone's about to say something ignorant

"I don't have anything against X," but . . .

That commenter is the victim of misinformation or just plain ignorance. It's a curable condition, fortunately, and perhaps this is a chance for "HUGE HUGE fan" to get better.

[LynneSin]

12. I think it's sick to expose kids to those enraged nostrils of Nancy Grace!!!

Just saying

[RockaFowler]

15. The comments are horrible

I really hope Chaz is not reading them. They almost make me wanna cry.

This takes a lot for him to do this as publically as he has. I know that Chaz is not a "celebrity" in the sense of say his mother Cher, but he did have a TV show on the OWN network. It's not really about that, the comments are mean and hurtful.

[RKP5637]

19. We've also become a mean and hurtful country IMO. Each comment often

meant to be more mean and hurtful than the last one. When I look at some online groups I never cease to be amazed by the stupidity, ignorance, violence, bigotry and the mean, hurtful and hateful comments.

[RockaFowler]

22. Message Boards in general are getting much worse

Look at Yahoo. That place is a cesspool of mean and spiteful people who are either ignorant, racist or both.

[Rex]

24. I've noticed that too.

Public forums are getting a lot nastier all around the WWW.

[RKP5637]

26. It is, isn't it. I don't even bother with the groups there anymore. Even when

you post something totally innocent, non-political, etc. one often gets assholish replies. And many of the people responding on Yahoo Answers are functionally illiterate, and those are often the best of the lot.

[HughBeaumont]

37. Yahoo message boards are the pigshit of the internet.

They make Freepers, Stormfront and even some Klansmen look like Noam Chomsky.

[RebelOne]

29. Some of the comments here are horrible, such as,

"Nancy Grace is a lunatic." Sorry, but I like Nancy Grace.

[Bunny]

16. Lifestyle choice??

Does anyone really think that Chaz would have gone through everything he's gone through just to live a 'lifestyle'? I fucking hate ignorant, narrow-minded bigots.

[Rex]

17. Fuck anyone that wants to get into peoples personal business.

They can all go fuck themselves, mind your own business and enjoy the show! :eyes:

[RKP5637]

20. +1000 +++ n/t

[Rex]

32. I know that was rude of me, but why do so many people

have problems with simple biology and the human body? Are we still that puritanical? After 200 plus years! Sad, pathetic and WRONG! We need to move forward and not backward like the GOP wants us to! Progress means to accept or at least acknowledge new ideas or concepts; we live in a world where a person can now get a face transplant...a new FACE! That is just how progress works and if a man wants to become a woman or vice versa, then it is no ones busniess but them and their doctor imo!

Rant off.

[RKP5637]

35. Yep, I know exactly what you mean. I've been listening to this type of BS for decades and

decades and I always thought we would grow up, but apparently not. Some people still have their faces stuck in everyones else's private parts.

[hifiguy]

21. Asshattery of the first order.

Some people's kids, I tells ya......

[Generic Other]

25. Cher confessed to not speaking to him for a year un til she came to grips with it

So even in his own family, he suffered for his decision. I haven't read the comments nor do I want to. I will take everyone's word. I have never watched the show, but I will go out of my way to vote for him as others upthread have vowed to do.

No one deserves to be treated like that by vicious strangers.

[bullwinkle428]

27. The poster used "lifestyle", "choice", and "flaunting" - it's like the bigot trifecta!

[RockaFowler]

28. I know ABC did this for ratings and all

But it is a big step for a major network to bring this to the forefront.

Also on a side note - JR Martinez should also be getting a lot of our votes. Yes, he is an actor on All My Children, but he is also a wounded Iraq War Veteran.

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/cast-announcement/ThemeGallery/842922

J.R. Martinez is an Iraq war veteran, motivational speaker and actor on ABC's All My Children. In April 2003, at 19 years old, he was serving as a Humvee driver for the U.S. Army in Iraq when his left front tire hit a landmine. He suffered smoke inhalation and severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body.

J.R. was immediately evacuated and sent to Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio where he spent 34 months in recovery. Since his injury, he has undergone 33 different surgeries, including skin grafts and cosmetic surgery. While in recovery, he started speaking to other burn patients within the hospital, sharing his experiences and listening to theirs. News of his story and efforts to help others quickly spread, first on a local level and then to national circuits, leading to appearances on Oprah, 60 Minutes, CNN and more.

[sandyj999]

34. I have lived through wars, segregation, the 60's and even George Bush

and I will say that I am astonished we have come no further than this. Chaz Bono looks like a male and acts like a male. I have been amazed at the ignorance and bigotry some are showing and realize that it will never change.

[digitaln3rd]

36. Anytime you have to start your sentence with "I have no problem with her *but*...."

You should probably just shut your trap.

I've never watched the show before but I'll watch this season if it's getting hateful people so worked up!

[marmar]

38. 'I just don't want that lifestyle choice continually flaunted in the media esp ABC'

Every time I hear some comment like that I want to slap somebody. 'It's okay if 'those people' exist, as long as I don't have to see them.'

[AnnieBW]

39. Um, they DO know that Bruno is gay, right?

I'm surprised that they're not screaming about Carson Kressley.

[Initech]

40. These people need to get a life.