Chaz Bono 'GMA' Interview: 'Gender is Between Your Ears'

Chaz Bono sat down Thursday with Good Morning America's Chris Cuomo for his first live interview as a transgender man, reports the Advocate.

Bono is 8 months into his gender reassignment process. He is still undergoing hormone therapy to help change his body from that of a female to a male. The hormones have deepened his voice, as was apparent in the interview.

The son of Cher and Sonny Bono, Chaz Bono says he always felt like a boy growing up and came out as a lesbian 11 years ago. Now he's undergone gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.

"To me, gender is between your ears, not between your legs," he tells Cuomo. "I've felt male as far back as I can remember. As a child, it was really clear. I felt like a boy."? ?

Chaz explained that declaiming himself a lesbian was the easy answer. "A lot of female-to-male transgender people end up doing a stint in the lesbian community because it just kind of makes sense," he says. "At 13, 14, I was real clear at that point that I was attracted to women. So I was like, 'I'm attracted to women, I am a woman. I guess I'm a lesbian.'"? ?

He says the decision to transition from Chastity to Chaz was not an easy one, and that gender reassignment surgery is especially difficult when you're in the media spotlight. "Just an incredible hurdle was the idea that I wasn't going to be able to do this privately like most people can. That took me a really long time to get over. And then, it was about dealing with the people in my life and how it was going to affect them. And finally, it came down to realizing that I've got to live my life for myself and life is short and life is precious."