The latest swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated featured a man who believes he is a woman, and promoted him as the “first trans woman of color” to appear in the magazine, as reported by Breitbart.
The man, Leyna Bloom, is also identified as the magazine’s first black and Asian model. MJ Day, an editor for the magazine, described Bloom as “legendary in the world of activism, strikingly gorgeous, and has an undeniable sense of self thatshines through the minute she walks on set.” Day further added that “[his] presence as the first trans woman of color to be in our issue is a result of [his] lifetime dedication to forging [his] own path that has led to acceptance, love, and change.” Day’s statement repeatedly and incorrectly referred to Bloom as a woman.
“Thank you for allowing me to showcase my heavenly form,” Bloom said in a social media post. “In this moment, I am a representation of all the communities I grew from, and all the communities I’m planting seeds in.”
Bloom’s inclusion in the magazine is the latest example of “transgender” men – men who suffer a mental disorder in which they believe they are women, and thus get surgery done to alter their bodies – usurping roles that have always been exclusively for women in the past. Sports Illustrated had featured another transgender model last year, with Valentina Sampaio becoming the very first “transgender” model to appear in the magazine.
In Nevada last week, transgender Kataluna Enriquez won the “Miss Silver State USA” title, and is now eligible to possibly win the title of “Miss Nevada USA,” which would subsequently put him in competition against all the other biological women in the running for the highly-coveted Miss USA crown.