Canadian model Lauren Chan is a cover model for the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine—and she’s the first out lesbian to have her own cover.
While soccer player Megan Rapinoe was the first out queer woman to appear inside the Swimsuit issue in 2019 and she and her fiancée, basketball player Sue Bird, appeared on the issue’s cover in a group shot last year, Chan is the first to have a solo cover.
“I’m the first out lesbian on the cover — with her own cover — and how much that means to me makes that surprise feel so overwhelming,” Chan told PEOPLE. “That’s where I feel like the tears of joy and celebration and relief and community come from.”
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The SI issue has four covers, the other three featuring actor Salma Hayek Pinault, influencer Olivia Dunne, and gymnast Jordan Chiles with their own solo covers, all available on newsstands starting May 17.
Chan actually used the SI Swimsuit issue as her platform to come out in 2023.
“Atop the list of things I never thought I’d do, in escalating order: be in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, be gay and come out to the world in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit,” Chan wrote. “But Taylor Swift is single again, so: I’m here! I’m a lesbian! And I’m telling you right now!”
She wrote about coming out to herself in her 30s and divorcing her husband, crediting the Lesbian Masterdoc, Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, and WLW TikTok for her self-discovery. Now, she’s engaged to director Hayley Kosan whose current Instagram bio reads “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Husband of the Year 2025.”
“My whole career has been based on representation and inclusion, first for folks of size with my time as a plus-size model and fashion editor and plus-size brand founder,” Chan told PEOPLE in a May 13 exclusive, referring to her clothing company Henning.
“Then once I started my journey with Swimsuit, it has become a lot about LGBTQ folks and the AAPI community, because I believe I’m also the first Chinese person on the cover of Swimsuit. So although my career has taken different forms, the same North Star has been followed, and that is to represent people like me who have felt marginalized and left out to have them feel not just included but celebrated.”