Cher Talks About Chaz Bono’s Gender Change: “It’s Hard, ’cause She’s Still My Girl.”

It seems like the rest of the world has been very careful to refer to Chaz Bono as “he” since the only child of Cher and Sonny Bono announced his transition from female to male last year.

But his superstar mother, in various interview promoting her new movie Burlesque, keeps referring to Chaz as “she” and only catching herself sometimes.

In Sunday’s issue of Parade, Cher spoke movingly of her child who used to appear with her and ex-husband Bono on their 70s variety show: “When Chaz first told me about wanting a sex change, I had a really hard time with it. We talked about the transgendered thing intermittently for years. She was unhappy. Plus, she was doing drugs. [Chaz was addicted to Oxycontin]. I believed that once she stopped doing drugs, she would have a much better life and put the transgender idea on the back burner.”

But after getting sober in 2004, Chaz became more determined than ever.

“She said to me, ‘If I’m ever going to do it, I’ve got to do it now. I’m 40,’” Cher recalls. “I went, ‘If you’ve got to do it dear, you’ve got to do it.’”

In May, Chaz’s gender and name were legally changed.

“When I realized she was going to do it, it was rocky for me. I thought, ‘What will the press do to her?’ What will they do to the two of us together? It’s going to be the biggest nightmare that will not stop. But the press has been kinder than I thought they would be.”

“It’s hard ’cause she’s still my girl. But she has an inner strength and she’s a courageous person – she believes what she believes. She and her girlfriend came over here for dinner last night.”

Good to see that Cher and Chaz are close and supportive of each other. Now if only Cher could start to refer to her child as “he".