Chaz Bono: From Girl to Boy to Man in 'Becoming Chaz'

PARK CITY, Utah<br/> Jan. 25, 2011&#151; -- There's boyhood and there's manhood, but the part in the middle, most males don't relish. Not Chaz Bono.

In "Becoming Chaz," the raw portrait of Cher's son's journey from Chastity to Chaz, Bono gleefully embraces the awkward aspects of coming of age. Body hair makes him beam. He takes pride in his breastless chest. It's easy to picture him rubbing his face every morning, yearning for more prickly stubble.

Watching "Becoming Chaz" is like watching a boy go through puberty -- except this isn't just any boy, and this coming of age story isn't the kind that's taught in health class.

"Becoming Chaz" premiered to a packed theater Sunday at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Bono, 41, made headlines in 2009 when he announced his intentions to switch from female to male through hormonal and surgical procedures. Many people didn't know what that meant. A lot of people still don't know what that means. This documentary, which filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato launched when Bono was six months into his transition, aims to change that.

From condemning his feminine features ("I'll be really happy to get rid of these," he declares before going under the knife to remove his breasts) to loathing footage of him from the "Sonny & Cher" years ("I looked retarded on that show"), to his childhood desire to be just like his dad, Sonny Bono (they dressed up in matching houndstooth suits), it's clear that Bono hated being a woman. His aversion to his second X chromosome is underlined by the lengths to which he goes to erase his femininity. There's the tangible -- injecting himself with testosterone, binding his breasts so tight he has trouble breathing; and there's the not -- alienating himself from his mother, forcing his partner to question their relationship.

Speaking of that partner: Throw away any notion that transgender equals dateless. While Bono admits, "There was that fear -- who's going to love someone like me?" his partner, Jennifer Elia, is a beautiful brunette, smart and secure in her convictions, willing to spar with Bono when need be and hold him close when that's the more appropriate course of action. But she's human -- like Bono, she battles substance abuse: He was addicted to pain killers, she, to alcohol. (At a rough point in Bono's transition, she starts drinking again.)