First transgender contestant says judges were biased against him from the start

Oct 26, 2011 08:50 GMT  ·  By

After Monday's disastrous results during Broadway Night, Chaz Bono was voted off the competition in the Dancing With the Stars results show. He claims he was voted off because audiences and judges had been biased against him.

His accusations (see the video below for his interview with Access Hollywood right after the elimination) come short on the heels of Maksim Chmerkovskiy's claims that judges pick favorites and then stand by them, to other dancer's detriment.

While he stresses that the experience was “life-changing” for him, Bono too believes he was singled out for his weight and for being transgender – and not once treated fairly during his 6-week run on the show.

This is also what he said after Monday's night dance, at the end of which judge Bruno Tonioli compared him to a “cute penguin” trying to pass for a bird of prey while doing the tango on the Phantom of the Opera music.

“If you’re an overweight woman in this competition, losing weight, they love you. If you’re an overweight guy trying to do this competition, getting in shape, they penalize you for it, call you a penguin,” cameras caught him saying.

He stands by his remark: the judges and audiences were biased against him all along, which means he never actually stood a chance of winning the competition.

What's worse, he says in a separate interview cited by TMZ, is that children in the same situation he was when growing up could have used a role model on such a popular television program as DWTS.

“I wanted to show America a different kind of man. If there was somebody like me on TV when I was growing up my whole life would have been different,” he said.

“I dedicate everything I did to all the people out there like me – and especially to kids and teens who are struggling,” Chaz added.

Voices online are already agreeing with him on some of the points he made after the elimination, particularly on that Bruno's comments often verged on bullying and had nothing to do with his dancing skills.

These – the skills – lacked almost completely, they're also saying. Chaz was at a disadvantage because of his weight and was often mocked on the show, but the only reason he was eliminated was that he simply couldn't dance.

Make yourself heard in the comments section below: was Chaz Bono's elimination from DWTS fair or unfair?