Sports Illustrated is receiving backlash. This comes subsequent to having 30-year-old Kim Petras, a transgender pop star, on its swimsuit cover. She joined Megan Fox and Brooks Nadar.
On Monday, the unveiling of the trans woman and Grammy-winning pop singer on the cover was revealed. Many people then began to voice their opinions online.
One Twitter user wrote, “Kim Petras, a biological MAN, is Sports Illustrated’s new cover model.”
“Two years in a row Sports Illustrated has taken a coveted spot from actual women to give them to a man who thinks he’s a woman,” another tweet read.
MJ Day, the SI Swimsuit Editor-in-Chief, called Petras a “beacon of inspiration for the LGBTQIA+ community.” He added that the goal is to strive for women to reside in a world with no boundaries, inside and out. Day says that there is no theme this year as these women are evolving continuously.
“It’s very iconic, and a lot of very iconic people have done it before, so big dream come true for me. I hope people take away from this that I look really hot and Sports Illustrated is cool,” Petras stated.
This is the first time that Petras has been featured on the cover. However, Leyna Bloom was the first trans woman to be included in Sports Illustrated in 2021.
Good thing no one reads Sports illustrated