June 16, 2009

Chastity Bono’s Sex Change=Shrug

Photo used under a Creative Commons license by flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46286526@N00/">czarlos</a>

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Chastity Bono is having a sex-change. America’s reaction? Whatevs.

When Bono was outed by a tab nearly 20 years ago, she called the experience “terrifying”— and mom Cher famously “flipped out.”

Yet the reactions to Chastity’s evolution into Chaz have veered from supportive (Cher, Hollywood Gossip, Mexican singer Thalia) to ho-hum (even Fox News couldn’t muster a negative response).

This on the heels of American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert announcing his (admittedly not-at-all-surprising) homosexuality to a collective yawn.

America obviously has a long way to go when it comes to LGBT acceptance (I’m talking to you, Prop 8). But it seems Chastity/Chaz isn’t the only one undergoing change.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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