The first issue of Playboy magazine out after the death of Hugh Hefner also happens to be the first ever to feature an official transgender playmate.
Ines Rau, 26, calls posing fully nude a celebration of her "coming out"; but some fans are upset over her inclusion and say they'll stop buying it as a result.
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- Hugh Hefner mourned after death
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The Paris-born fashion model has featured in Playboy before, but she's making history as the first transgender Playmate with a pictorial and centrefold.
"I'm an advocate for anyone who is scared to be who they really are because they fear being judged or rejected," says Rau.
"They should be empowered by their differences and not be who society tells them to be."
While Playboy itself is heralding Rau's photoshoot as progress, some of their customers are making their unhappiness known on the magazine's official Facebook page.
"When I open a Playboy, I expect to see women, not some guy who identifies as a woman, or some former male who has had the surgery to become female," says Bob Reid.
"I really don't think that I am a Neanderthal for having this view, and most men that I know feel the same... Bye-bye Playboy, you have lost me as a reader and supporter."
"If they have Playboy and Playgirl, why can't they just publish a third called Playidontknowwhatthef**kiam magazine?" added Mike Allyn.
Other fans cheered the move.
"This fits the traditional thinking of Hugh Hefner and parts of The Playboy Philosophy brilliantly. It's about sexual liberation," says Raymond Karlsson.
The November/December 2017 issue of Playboy also features a celebration of Hefner's life, interviews with Chelsea Handler and James Corden, and an in-depth report on Uganda's LGBTQ community.
Newshub.
