I met Cher back in 2000 at a sales meeting in Las Vegas for one of my product launches. Cher posed with a small group of senior executives. I tried to sneak out of the photo op (for obvious reasons...I hate having my picture taken), but Cher caught me and pulled me in. It's the only picture she took that night where she's got her arm around someone.
Only in my family does this brush with celebrity qualify one as "friend."
I decide to tune in to the show to watch Cher cheer on Chaz. The aunties phone while the show is on and I explain what I'm watching. I don't know why I bothered:
Me: Okay, well, I've got to go. I'm watching Dancing with the Stars and Cher is on.
X & Y: Cher is dancing?
Me: No, no. Her son is dancing.
X&Y: What son?
I know enough to quit while I am ahead (relatively speaking). I just don't think I have the stamina to explain the whole trans gender thing.
Chaz, if you saw it, danced to the theme from Rocky (da-da da-da-da da-da-da-da-DAH!). I have tears in my eyes when s/he finishes. Even Carrie Ann is crying (as is Mama Cher).
This surprises me. Carrie Ann speaks for both of us when she says, "For some reason, you get under my skin."
I think about this for a bit and then it occurs to me. Chaz is on a transformational journey. A male who was trapped in a female body his whole life. He is a work in process. We are watching him morph, becoming his authentic self.
I can relate. I feel like a thin person trapped in a plus size body.
So, for the next several weeks, my friend Chaz and I will go on our parallel journeys.
Who knows, maybe I'll call my "friend" Cher and invite her to dinner to see how much I've changed too.
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