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Playboy Features First Transgender Playmate
Ines Rau. (Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images)
Playboy has announced French transgender model Ines Rau as the Playmate for the November/December 2017 issue of the magazine, making Rau the first-ever openly transgender Playmate. While the magazine has featured transgender models in the past—Caroline "Tula" Cossey was the first, having posed for the magazine in 1991—this is the first time the Playmate title has been given to a transgender model.
"Being a woman is just being a woman." Meet November 2017 Playmate Ines Rau, the first transgender Playmate. https://t.co/w28vfilSP9 pic.twitter.com/iVAqOgB0TK
— Playboy (@Playboy) October 18, 2017
The November/December 2017 issue is the first to publish after the death of the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner. The same issue will also feature Hefner on the cover, the first time a man has appeared solo on the cover of the magazine, according to the New York Post.
Rau has been featured in the magazine before; she posed for a May 2014 issue that examined gender beyond the male-female binary. In the article accompanying Rau's Playmate centerfold, she explains how much the 2014 photoshoot resonated for her. “It’s how I celebrated my coming out, actually,” she told Playboy. “I took that chance, and then I signed with an agency.”
"It’s a salvation to speak the truth about yourself, whether it’s your gender, sexuality, whatever. The people who reject you aren’t worth it. It’s not about being loved by others; it’s about loving yourself," she explained.
Rau has appeared in Vogue Italia and a Balmain campaign, as well as previously dancing for DJs in Ibiza, according to Playboy.
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