Playboy will feature a transgender model in its November issue this year.

Ines Rau, 26, is a French model will be the featured centerfold of the issue.

Rau has done Playboy before. She was fully nude in a May 2014 issue.

“I lived a long time without saying I was transgender. I dated a lot and almost forgot. I was scared of never finding a boyfriend and being seen as weird. Then I was like ‘you know, you should just be who you are. It’s a salvation to speak the truth about yourself, whether it’s your gender, sexuality, whatever.”

Rau is an advocate for LGBTQ rights as well as global warming.

Cooper Hefner, Playboy’s chief creative officer, told the New York Times that choosing Rau as the Playmate “speaks to the brand’s philosophy”.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Hefner said. “We’re at a moment where gender roles are evolving”.

Reactions on social media were mixed, to say the least. Many praised the idea of a transgender on the cover, while others thought the magazine was pushing the ‘idea’ down their throats.