What a difference a viral photo makes. After recreating Adam Levine’s classic Cosmo pose, trans activist and model Aydian Dowling has found himself in the lead for Men’s Health Ultimate Guy Search.
The mag is looking for a “a guy who is fit and fearless, a doer who gives back and leads by example” to grace its November 2015 cover. Dowling meets those criteria and then some, currently boasting nearly three times the number of votes than his nearest competitor.
“As a transgender male, having a healthy body and mind is my ultimate goal to find peace within my soul,” Dowling told Men’s Health. “Although I may always have some kind of battle with my body, I continue to work everyday for a happy peace within.”
Related: Sexy Trans Model Aydian Dowling Recreates Naked Adam Levine Photo
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Dowling is also spreading his fitness fanaticism in his hometown of Eugene, Oregon where he’s started training other trans males: “They have greatly progressed and I feel very proud to see their self confidence grow. I do nothing but support them and show technique, but drive is contagious!”
You can vote for Aydian in Men’s Health‘s Ultimate Guy Search here — voting ends June 21. Then it’s up to a panel of judges including fashion designer Kenneth Cole and noted brickhouse Sofia Vergara.
Les Fabian Brathwaite — just up in the gym, twerking on his fitness.
Martin Shaw
Fantastic 🙂
Mark Pointon
WOOF!!
gauty
*sigh* He’s so gorgeous. Good for him!
Nelson P. Barroso U.
Alonso J Lizaraz Look!!!
Martin Steele
Hello … I’d be honoured to train with him
1898
Awesome!
Lindoro Almaviva
I tHunk it is important to note he is not the only transmission in the running. entry 366, Shane O., was recently in the news. He is a military transmit who is attempting to live openly in the military.
Lindoro Almaviva
The fucking autocorrect! Entry 366 is also a TRANS MAN.
Frank Croix
Very sexy.
Randolph Arand-mcIlrath
Sexy
Linda Bell Webb
Wow looks good
yynotnnh
Not a real man, enjoy living on testosterone to maintain the male imagine, so fake she is.
AtticusBennett
@yynotnnh: you’re not a real man, either. you’re a wimpy anonymous closeted troll with no balls whom nobody loves 😀
TransParency_
@AtticusBennett: Balls don’t make a man genius, you ruin whatever good intention you may have by using cis-centric language. Idiot.
DarkZephyr
@TransParency_: and you ruin whatever good intentions you may have by continuously making stupid posts all over Queerty that make people hate you. Idiot.
DarkZephyr
Aydian Dowling is indeed beautiful. Alas, he is straight. Le sigh. But how do we vote for him? I can’t see any “vote” button. I am stupid. lol
DDstar1me
F–mylife. he has a better body than I’ll ever have. I wish him all the best. This life is really a bitch. And then the bitch turns around and kills you. lol
polarisfashion
I am jealous, he has a nice chiseled body. Even when I was skinny, you couldn’t see my abs, and I did like 200 crunches a night! Also, to all the transgender haters out there, I dare you to say something to his face so we can watch him kick your ass!
McShane
This is awesome. I’ve seen him around town a few times, he is crazy cute. Hope he wins.
da90027
Id hit that even if he has a snatch
AtticusBennett
@TransParency_: i have no proof that you’re a transgender person. and i was merely using the language of that idiot to make the point. so calm down.
mz.sam
As expected from the complimentary comments, its always easier for a trans female-to-male to transition physically along with good diet and gym time than a male-to-female transition appearance-wise. Just note the amount of hunky/shirtless transgender males images seen compared to the bikini clad transgender females so far. In addition, no need for any jealousies here with intelligent eating habits and dedicated gym training no matter the gender or age. Namaste.
maxdadmark
I’m glad he feels like a man. But as there are no man parts, he might as well be a blow up doll.
Timothy Herbert
can he address prostate cancer…
AtticusBennett
@maxdadmark: and you might as well not exist, ye of the closeted anonymous coward brigade.
maxdadmark
Apparently, if you have a preference for men with genitalia, the hysterics here are gonna run you down.
maxdadmark
Different strokes for different folks. It’s clear that there are people who like men with vaginas. Let’s not slam those of us who don’t find it attractive.
AtticusBennett
@maxdadmark: ten bucks says your dad wishes you weren’t his son.
AtticusBennett
@maxdadmark: now, i know you’re trolling, because you’re bored and have no life and like i said your family wishes you’d probably just choke on a chicken bone and be gone forever – but this isn’t about “preferences”, this isn’t about “slamming people who don’t find blah blah blah blah attractive”
this is about you being a transphobic piece of s**t. anonymously. online. know what people like you are? you’re usually ugly as hell, with little to no intelligence, and like i said – i bet your white trash family wishes they weren’t related to you.
stop being upset that Aydian is more man than you’ll ever be.
TransParency_
@maxdadmark: You deserve to be slammed because you are transphobic. When you say “I like men except for transmen” you are erasing us and belittling us. You don’t get to simply reject ALL transmen as potential sexual partners simply because of their genitalia, THAT IS TRANSPHOBIC. Cis homos should know better when it comes to discrimination but they tend to be as much or even more bigoted than Cis-het folks.
Low Country Boy
He looks great! On an aside: Why does the Queerty website post double comments form posters? What the hell is the IT department doing there? Let me guess: I’m blocked, as they have so many people before.
Low Country Boy
Sorry for my sloppy fingers, “from.”
DarkZephyr
@TransParency_: Until you stop calling us cis-“homos” you are no better than any homophobe or transphobe.
AndYouWillDeal
Sexy and good looking, but I like my men with a big ol’ penis and balls
AndYouWillDeal
@TransParency_: LOL people don’t get to reject who they don’t want to have sex with? Are you telling me I owe you sex somehow otherwise that’s transphobic? That’s rape culture!
AndYouWillDeal
@AtticusBennett: are you upset you are too ugly to get a hot cis male and have to just take trans males who usually come with a myriad of mental issues? 😉
TomMc
@TransParency_: Is there not a difference between erasing and ‘erasure’?
Jacob23
If we allow for the sake of argument that Aidyan is a man who is married to a woman, that makes him a straight man, a straight white man in fact. So if a straight white man competes for the cover of fitness mag, why is this news on Queerty? The only reason this makes news here is because Queerty doesn’t really consider a “transman” to be a man, but still views him as sort of a really butch lesbian.
BTW, the reporting is all wrong. This contest does not select the guy who will be on the cover. The votes are only one factor among many which the judges consider as they choose finalists in a 4 round process. And in the last round there are no public votes at all. So basically MH can do whatever it wants. And it is not going to turn off 99.9% of its male readership by passing over a war veteran contestant in favor of a narcissist with a plastic dong.
Danny
He’s hot! I could see myself dating him. I wonder if he is a gay or straight trans-man? I wonder what kind if exciting activities would make a good first date with him?
Can you people stop fighting.
Jacob23
@polarisfashion: lol! 90% of real men could kick his @ss. “He” is very good an posing and posturing for the cameras. But if he/she ever tried to fight a real man, like for example anyone who has ever been on the cover of MH, one good right to that overly round face would put him on the ground. And before anyone gets their panties in a twist, I am not advocating fighting; I am responding to Polaris’ claim that “Aidyan” is an @ss-kicker.
polarisfashion
@Jacob23: Did you see the arms on this guy? Care to make a wager?
Cee
@da90027: lol smh
Sansacro
@TransParency_: I think you overestimate cis-het acceptance of trans. A lot of people are polite, but hardly accepting. I think you’ll find as much, or more, transphobic comments on other websites. I think the rejection by other queer people just stings more because of the expectation that they will/should be more sensitive toward difference.
Arcamenel
@DarkZephyr: Trans people are 10x as likely to be murdered as gay men and have a life expectancy of less than 40. Are you really upset because you got called a cis-homo? Are you not cisgender? Are you not gay? Are facts offensive now?!
DarkZephyr
@Arcamenel: Calm down. If he is going to judge us ALL as transphobes and accuse us of “trans-erasure” over every casually placed word AND because some of us talk about how much we like penises, then I am certainly going to hold him to the same standard that he is holding us to. If you have a problem with it, that’s fine but do not try to sell it to me. I promise you that I am not buying.
DarkZephyr
@Jacob23: “If we allow for the sake of argument that Aidyan is a man who is married to a woman, that makes him a straight man, a straight white man in fact. So if a straight white man competes for the cover of fitness mag, why is this news on Queerty? The only reason this makes news here is because Queerty doesn’t really consider a “transman” to be a man, but still views him as sort of a really butch lesbian.”
This is “Queerty.com” and not “LGB.com”. Many LGBT people and organizations, including Queerty, consider the word “queer” to encompass all LGBT people and Mr. Dowling is part of the “T” in LGBT. But I am sure there are other news blogs you can visit if you don’t like Trans inclusion in LGBT themed news blogs like Queerty.
@Jacob23: “lol! 90% of real men could kick his @ss. “He” is very good an posing and posturing for the cameras. But if he/she ever tried to fight a real man, like for example anyone who has ever been on the cover of MH, one good right to that overly round face would put him on the ground. And before anyone gets their panties in a twist, I am not advocating fighting; I am responding to Polaris’ claim that “Aidyan” is an @ss-kicker.”
And the truth comes out. You are simply a bigot. Go away, you don’t belong here.
stranded
damn he’s gorgeous.
Jacob23
@DarkZephyr: So you can’t really explain why a straight, white man is lumped together with gay and bi men. But someone told you “LGBT” and that was good enough. You should become a Mormon or a devout Roman Catholic. You have the right mindset.
BTW, if I don’t belong here because I challenge prevailing norms, that makes me “queer.” And because I am queer, according to you, that means I do belong here. So thank you for indirectly telling me that you want me here.
Jacob23
@polarisfashion: Her arms are spindly. Not even close to what you see on any real male who appears in MH. I’d be happy to accept a wager, but I am not sure how we could get her and a male to fight. Maybe we could offer the male some money and offer her a real c0ck for transplantation.
Antonio Murillo Retana
Sexy hot man
VampDC
Why?!
I’m sorry but the magazine is Men’s Health, and regardless of what he/she chooses to be – your health is different from that of a biological man.
Charles Sherwood Morrill
Damn good surgeon , great looking guy
Jacob23
@Charles Sherwood Morrill: I agree. Her surgeon is a good looking guy.
Carlisle Hallsted
Sexy
jwtraveler
@TransParency_: Alienating one’s supporters is NEVER a good tactic in any movement for social justice.
jwtraveler
@TransParency_: I might add that, contrary to your statements, the vast majority of commenters on this story are supportive of Aydian and transpeople in general. The few anti-trans commenters are soundly rebuked by the others. You need to learn to appreciate the support you have without dissecting everyone’s statements to find unacceptable words and then attacking people for them.
T101
This is just weird.. google what their “privates” look like… yikes…
TinyStark
I think I would be very disappointed if he was the one winning. Men’s Health is kind of a fitness/gym lifestyle magazine if I understood correctly. He might be very pretty, his transition might be flawless but for a man, he is pretty banal on the body level and he is much more of an LGBT activist than a healthy lifestyle promoter.
If you want a transman who fits much better for this magazine’s criterias, take at look Shane Ortega. He is in the contest aswell with much less votes unfortunately, the guy is A FUCKING PILE OF MUSCLES and keeps promoting a healthy lifestyle and exercising he is in the US Army and he has been fighting his butt off for equality in the army and he is forced to wear a blue dress, a formal US Army female attire. I think that should be addressed that he goes through that even if he served as a man during some of his deployments in war zones.
I know voting for him is voting to make a point, but you make it the wrong way if you vote for him. If Aydian wins, I would feel it’s like a “Hey, nice try, it’s the best you can do, you can’t do better but it’s ok”, like you’d stick the shitty drawing of a kid on your fridge as encouragement for good effort to not hurt his feelings but you can’t wait for him to turn his back so you can rip it off and pretend the dog ate it.
It’s positive discrimination and it sucks. Judge according to someone’s efforts and dedication to the lifestyle, vote for them accordingly, not because you absolutely want to see a transboy pretty face plastered on a men gym magazine. He is way too scrawny to be taken seriously. And he isn’t scrawny because he is FtM, he is scrawny because he isn’t a passionate of this lifestyle, he is passionate activist. And people might think it’s the best FtMs can offer.
AtticusBennett
@AndYouWillDeal: are you upset that your family doesn’t love you?
hazelpeggiedjinn
@yynotnnh: He’s probably ten times better looking than you are. Why does it matter what body you were born in, especially when you look as fucking good as he does.
heavylifter
@hazelpeggiedjinn: She doesn’t look good though, the hacked off tits and ugly scars, mediocre muscle even though she is on a steroid stack.
The fact she can only copy cat the scrawny druggie ( ie feminine ) carcass of Adam Levine says it all.