Woke Sports Illustrated Promotes Transgender Man as Swimsuit Pinup

The owners and editors of Sports Illustrated are betting that a transgender man on the cover of their 2021 swimsuit edition will change heterosexual attitudes, shift the magazine’s public image, and help their imminent Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Wall Street.

“I’m am so happy, honored, and humbled to share that I’m the 1st trans woman to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated!” transgender model Leyna Bloom said on Instagram. The issue also includes special covers for tennis ace Naomi Osaka and rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

The magazine is owned by Authentic Brands Group (ABG), whose website declares, “The mission of ABG is to evolve, transform and reimagine global brands through innovative business models, powerful storytelling, compelling content and immersive experiences.”

The editorial production of Sports Illustrated is outsourced to a separate company, which posted a woke tagline on its Twitter account: “Opening Eyes • Speaking Truths • Changing Minds.”

In a LinkedIn post touting the 2021 choices, editor MJ Day, declared her support for a progressive-led reorganization of Americans’ culture: “I have never been more proud to have these three women cover 2021 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. We will continue to be the change we wish to see.”

Day’s “change we wish to see” comment suggests that Day wishes to displace young women as the sexual ideal for the many male readers of Sports Illustrated, while American society is transformed by mass migration and corporate influence over commercial culture.

On July 6, RenaissanceCapital.com reported:

Authentic Brands Group, which owns and licenses various consumer lifestyle brands, filed on Tuesday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million. However, the deal size is likely a placeholder for an IPO we estimate could raise $1.5 billion.

Backed by BlackRock, Leonard Green and Partners, and General Atlantic, Authentic’s portfolio of 32+ fully- and partly-owned lifestyle brands include Eddie Bauer, Aeropostale, Frye, Nautica, Nine West, Brooks Brothers, Lucky, Forever21, Spyder, Prince, Volcom, Barneys, Juicy Couture, and Airwalk, among others. Its entertainment brands include licensing rights for Sports Illustrated, Shaquille O’Neal, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and Muhammad Ali.

Transgender model Bloom is eager to join with corporations to help promote chaotic sexual diversity instead of the nation’s subtle sexual norms, such as weddings. Generations of Americans have gradually and carefully developed those norms to balance the competing and complementary desires and abilities of biological men, women, girls, and boys — while also making room for sexual minorities.

“I dedicate this cover to all ballroom femme queens past, present and future,” Bloom said on Instagram, adding:

This historical moment is important to [transgender] #girlslikeus because it allows us to live and be seen. Many girls like us don’t have the chance to live our dreams, or to live long at all. I hope my cover empowers those, who are struggling to be seen, feel valued. Let me be a messenger guiding us to a future of respect and appreciation for all women in all forms.

The “transgender” label includes several disparate categories of people who want to live as members of the other sex.

The categories include young people who reject puberty in the increasingly chaotic dating culture and normal tomboys pushed to declare themselves as transgender boys. It also includes gays and lesbians who try to reconcile relationship conflicts, older and often high-testosterone heterosexual men who are sexually entranced by images of themselves as women, plus some people — such as Bloom — who extensively remodel themselves to “pass” as romantically desirable members of the opposite sex.

The magazine’s praise for the transgender model did not mention the known risks of claimed transgender status. They include the health risks from drugs, hormones, and surgery, the sexual and social isolation of people who claim to be transgender, and the refusal to recognize the non-transgender sources of teenagers’ distress.

Numerous polls show the public is not hostile to ordinary transgender people — but overwhelmingly wants to protect their evolved and generous civic norms from pro-transgender activists and companies who deny the equal, different, and complementary biological nature of men and women. The polls also show that parents want to shield their children from transgender activists, from medical risks, and from the social isolation ensured by a transgender identity.

In June, the Sports Illustrated‘s transgender model touted a role in an upcoming movie, Port Authority, telling Refinery29.com:

Opposites attract in this film. Here’s a white man, here’s a Black woman. Here’s a trans woman, and a straight man. Here’s New York City — anything can go. Anything can live, anything can breathe. It’s a very real story and one that I’ve lived over and over again, and many trans women have lived, dealing with toxic masculinity every fucking second of our fucking lives, and trying to navigate it and being empathetic and giving people a chance. You want to be part of my life? You need to come correct and get it together. I want to be loved, and this movie is about love, a unique different kind of love that is not really explored or seen in society. It’s a relationship that’s in the dark and is brought to the light.

But Bloom also wants transgender people to play a large role in the nation’s culture:

People love to fantasize about superheroes and superpowers. But trans people and trans bodies are biblical; before colonization, so many tribes celebrated our existence and our godliness, and our power to bring people together through our harmony and our love. I don’t understand why people have this love for X-Men but when they see someone that’s different, it’s such black-and-white complexity. I want to be in movies that are about kicking ass and having superpowers. Let’s really explore the ideas that trans people have so much feminine and masculine energy in us, and we can really tell stories. Why limit myself? I want to do it all.

“I want to be Cleopatra! I want to be a Bond girl!” Bloom said, adding, “There are so many ways to really manifest our visibility everywhere — not just in entertainment but also all different walks of life.”