Tag: dwts gay

Chaz Bono will be making history on Dancing With the Stars 2011 season 13 by being the first transgender contestant. Not everyone, however, is all that pleased with the decision to cast Chaz Bono on the show. Even here on our on website, the comments have included some unpleasant responses to the casting news.

“Why oh why would the show cast Chaz Bono? Of all the people in the world I know you could have come up with someone that has not done what he/she did. It is immoral and wrong, wrong, wrong to have someone like that anywhere near the public,” commenter ‘carolyn and paul lupo’ posted on our site. Another commenter, ‘Tom’, simply posted: “Our family will not be watching this season.”

An organization called One Million Moms is asking people to “email ABC Network and let them know that we will not tolerate these subjects being forced into our homes.” A post on the group’s website says the casting of Chaz Bono and Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) “is completely unacceptable and Christians should not watch the show, no excuses!”

Some may not be pleased with the decision to cast Chaz Bono on the show, but his Dancing With the Stars season 13 partner is. “I was absolutely thrilled. I’ve always been a huge supporter of the LGBT community and I couldn’t be more excited to have Chaz. Not only is he Sonny & Cher’s child but he’s also a generally cool person,” Lacey Schwimmer told TheInsider.com.

Chaz Bono’s mom, the legendary Cher, is also riled up about all the negativity toward her offspring’s casting on season 13 of DWTS. “Chaz is Being Viciously Attacked on Blogs & Message boards about being on DWTS!” Cher posted on Twitter. “This is Still America right? It took guts 2 do it.”

Cher encouraged fans to go out and show their support of Chaz wherever they could. “Can u guys check out sites & give him your support ? BTW …Mothers don’t stop Getting angry with stupid bigots who fk with their children!”

Not only does Cher think Chaz belongs on the show, she thinks he will become a fan favorite. She said on Twitter that she would “bet VAST MAJORITY of People will LOVE CHAZ on DWTS! … it’s took Fkg Guts 2! Chaz isn’t exactly the ‘Gotta Dance Gotta Dance’ kinda Guy.”

Chaz Bono thanked mom Cher for her support via Twitter last night, saying: “Thanks for all your support mom. The haters are just motivating me to work harder and stay on DWTS as long as I possibly can.”

Despite the recent addition of a transgender celebrity to Dancing With the Stars 2011 season 13, there will be no same-sex couples on DWTS any time soon. While adding transgender man Chaz Bono to the cast this season stirred up questions about possible same-sex couples in the future, executive producer Conrad Green is totally against the idea.

“We’ve discussed (such) pairings in the past,” Green said, according to Today.com. “But the traditional role in ballroom (dancing) is for men to have a female partner, so that’s what we’ll do.” Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley will be dancing with a female partner this season, which has irritated some gay activists who thought he should be partnered with a guy.

“I’m surprised when people get upset about the partnering,” DWTS senior producer Deena Katz said. “This is not a social dancing show, it’s a dancing competition. A man should dance with a woman, no matter what your sexual orientation, in ballroom. If I’d put Chaz with Mark [Ballas], for example, it would have looked like I was trying to make controversy. We’re not setting people up on dates.”

So although Chaz Bono is transgendered, he now identifies as a man and partnering him with professional dancer Lacey Schwimmer still keeps the couple as a traditional male/female pairing. Not everyone is comfortable with that interpretation, however. The casting of Sonny and Cher‘s offspring has some DWTS fans declaring they will not be turning in this season.

Although Dancing With the Stars execs seem to be against the idea of a same-sex couple on the show now, they did previously attempt to recruit Portia de Rossi in 2010 with an offer to let her dance with a woman. De Rossi, who married to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, turned down the proposal. The only same-sex couple to be featured on a version of Dancing With the Stars so far was Gili Shem-Tov and Dorit Milman, who appeared on the Israeli version of the show.

Dancing With the Stars 2011 season 13 premieres Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.