Kim Petras, the 30-year-old transgender model, and singer, has made history by becoming the second trans-identified model to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. Petras is joined by a host of other star-studded celebrities like Megan Fox, Martha Stewart, and Brooks Nader who have been featured in the 2023 swimsuit issue.
The singer and model had a great time shooting for the magazine and spoke to People about the experience, saying that the “whole team at Sports Illustrated made me feel really comfortable and like I belonged there” and that it was “a huge confidence boost”.
In addition to this, Petras also announced the release of her debut album, ‘Feed the Beast’, which drops on June 23. She said that she has been working on the album for three years and that it contains songs that mean the world to her and that it is something that people have not heard from her before.
Petras caused controversy earlier this year when she and Sam Smith performed a satanic-themed, sexualized performance at the Grammys. The pair won the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their hit single “Unholy”, but the performance earned a lot of backlash.
The 2023 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover model is a biological man with fake boobs. I really hope men are #Done with Sports Illustrated. https://t.co/FRIjS7FZNR pic.twitter.com/LTdlZb5cZJ
— Scarlett Johnson (@scarlett4kids) May 15, 2023
In response to the criticism, Petras said that she grew up wanting to be a part of religion but slowly realized that it did not want her to be a part of it. She explained that the performance was a take on not being able to choose religion and not being able to live the way that people might want her to live, as a trans person, she is “kind of already not wanted in religion”.
Biological male Kim Petras is now a 2023 SI Swimsuit cover model.
Real Women are under attack and being shunned and discarded by big government and big corporations.
I will never understand why anyone would prefer mental illness over a real woman. But here we are.. pic.twitter.com/kGjDqt1Pa9
— 🇺🇸Chelle🇺🇸 (@hottamali02) May 16, 2023
