The latest German edition of Playboy magazine will be the first to feature a transgender model on its cover. It comes on the heels of the US edition showcasing its first transgender centerfold, French model Ines Rau, in November. The model, Giuliana Farfalla, is known to viewers of Heidi Klum's "Germany's Next Top Model" and will star in the upcoming season of the German reality TV show "Jungle Camp."

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Farfalla, who was born as Pascal Radermacher in Breisgau in southwestern Germany, says she wants to be successful as a woman rather than as a transgender model. Feeling as if she had been born into "the wrong body" as a child, Farfalla decided to change her gender at the age of 16. She says she wants to encourage other transgender people with her success.

'Opposed to all forms of exclusion and intolerance'

Playboy's editor-in-chief for Germany, Florian Boitin, says that 21-year-old Farfalla is a "wonderful example of how important the fight for self-determination is." He also says that the decision was made in the spirit of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who was "resolutely opposed to all forms of exclusion and intolerance."

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Hefner, who died on September 27, was indeed a staunch advocate for sexual freedom, civil liberties and LGBT rights. He himself made the decision to feature British transgender model Caroline "Tula" Cossey back in 1981 and again in 1991. Cossey, whose long battle for the right to be legally recognized as a woman led her all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, has said that she was deeply thankful to Hefner for helping her cause.

'The right thing to do'

Hefner's son Cooper, who is now the creative director of Playboy Enterprises, said that featuring transgender models was "the right thing to do," adding: "We are at a moment where gender roles are evolving."

js/se (AP, dpa)