Inside trans bodybuilding
The FTM Fit Con’s bodybuilding competition is the only one of its kind for transgender athletes in the U.S.
This feature article by Tim Bella presents transgender athletes like Shawn:
Three days before the competition, covered in red and black from his Superman tank top to his Chicago Bulls hat, Stinson looks different from everybody else in the gym. His broad shoulders and back are bumpy and rigid, and he moves methodically from station to station. Minutes into a light bench workout with 60-pound dumbells, his lats and traps begin to glisten. He plows through sets of 10, nodding to the music on his earphones.
The Stinson that the trans bodybuilding world sees today — a magazine cover boy, confident, relaxed and outgoing — is a long way from the depressive, withdrawn child he once was. His mother worked multiple jobs to support him, but they still had to live with Stinson’s grandparents. Looking back on his childhood in Peoria, Illinois, he remembers how she would give him toys after her shift at the Holiday Inn.
“She never brought home any girly toys,” he says after his workout. “She kind of knew I was different.”
Photos of Shawn Stinson by Bryan Meltz for Al Jazeera America:
HT Sacha.