Transphobia, ABC, and Dancing with the Stars

The other day I was driving home from work and was basically tuning out the radio until something along the lines of "...negative backlash...Chaz Bono...contestant on Dancing with the Stars..." caught my ear. Really?

I looked it up, and it seems that tons of people (over 1,000) commented on ABC message boards when the contestants were announced. People ranted about being "DISGUSTED" with the show's decision, and many said that they would no longer watch the show. Luckily, the message board also had Chaz supporters firing back, but it's still worth commenting on.

For those who may not know, Chaz Bono is the son of Cher and Sonny Bono. Born Chastity Bono, Chaz has undergone a female-to-male transition as well as legally changed his name and gender. On DWTS, he will be dancing with a female professional dancer. And this seems to bother many, many people. 

What's interesting to me is that many of the "concerned" and "disgusted" viewers seem to think that ABC is "pushing a homosexual agenda" by featuring Chaz. No one, however, has mentioned fellow dancing star, Carson Kressley, an openly homosexual TV star, formerly of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Are they really concerned about homosexuality? Or are they more concerned about harder-to-understand transsexuality and transgender individuals? 

I also find it funny that at the top of the message board (with the most recent posts; I couldn't scroll through them all!!), there is one Chaz-hating, trans- and homophobic commenter who is constantly firing out angry messages, but when anyone posts a response that is calm and level-headed, this Chaz-hater ignores it. Because they don't know how to answer questions that use logic instead of anger? I think so... 

What makes me sad, though, is while ABC is standing by their decision to feature Chaz and his story (they pointed out that his "fascinating story" is one reason for choosing him), they are also very adamant about saying that they are not pushing a homosexual agenda. I mean, I don't really know what these critics have meant by a homosexual agenda: one that features homosexuals? one that dares to accept homosexuals as normal? one that says "everyone should be gay! we'll take over the world"? Out of those three interpretations (though there could be many, many more), ABC is certainly in the realm of the first two: Chaz and Carson are both featured contestants, and as far as I know, they are both seen as normal, capable contestants, no different from any others. And I know that in our homophobic culture, a channel can't come out and say "Yay! We love the gays!" without losing some ratings, but oh I wish they would. I, for one, would watch more if they did that! And based on the message board, many Chaz supporters have commented that they will watch DWTS when they never would have before, precisely because Chaz is a contestant.

In fact, I might also...I'll just mute it when the judges talk. They're annoying.