Vietnam’s first pro transgender bodybuilder pushing for acceptance over medals
Vietnam’s first professional transgender bodybuilder has fought all his life to be recognised as a man. But under the current laws and bodybuilding regulations, Kendy Nguyen is forced to compete alongside a gender with which he no longer identifies
As Kendy Nguyen powers through his final deltoid flexes, it’s obvious he’s not your garden-variety athlete. Nguyen is jacked beyond belief. His chiselled body is dripping with fake tan the colour of golden Cheetos. His blue veins bulge out of his football-sized biceps, like a scene straight out of your neighbourhood CrossFit gym.
But something is clearly amiss at this local tournament in sizzling Ho Chi Minh City. His teeny-weeny black bikini barely covers his oil-glazed pecs. In fact, Nguyen is a record-breaking female-to-male transgender bodybuilder going head to head with women, a sweaty hulk among a host of female bodybuilders. That’s the sacrifice – his gender identity – he must make in order to compete at all.
The 29-year-old is the first professional transgender bodybuilder in socialist Vietnam. He is part of a growing crop of transgender gym rats in the tropical nation who are avoiding an invasive, risky sex reassignment surgery on the operating table in favour of a more “gradual” and “healthier” way of transitioning.
Bulking up through bodybuilding is cheaper, easier and more natural, says the sweat-drenched, inked-up Nguyen, as he takes a breather in between reps. In the months leading up to a competition, he usually hits the gym six days a week, five to six hours at a time, spending nearly every waking moment pumping iron and moulding his muscles to “look more manly”, like the Adonis of Greek myth.
http://sea-globe.com/vietnams-first-pro-transgender-bodybuilder-pushing-for-acceptance-over-medals/
