Cher!

So Chaz Bono is on Dancing with the Stars.  It's not a show I watch.  Much buzz has surround Cher and whether she is a good mother of her trans son.  Activists and pundits think that Cher using incorrect pronouns or referring to Chaz as a lesbian indicate that she is a transphobic hater of her own child.  This is an absurd analysis.  Cher puts a public face on all the supportive parents of transfolk that stick up for their children despite being largely uniformed themselves.  So when Cher messes up a pronoun, I try to have the same compassion with her I extend to my own parents when they mess up a pronoun because I know that they spend the rest of the day at least feeling awful that they screwed up.  And I think: such a loving parent who is not afraid of saying something supportive because the pronoun might come out wrong due to years of habit.  So Cher: thank you for continuing to be a strong ally for the queer community.  And everyone else: lay off and note that Cher is a loving and supportive parent.