In almost every respect Aydian Dowling is a typical cover star for a men's fitness magazine. With his defined abs, stylish facial hair, puppy-dog eyes and set of tattoos across his torso, it is not hard to see why the 27-year-old is the strong favourite to win the popular vote in the annual Men's Health "Ultimate Guy" competition - a contest that will turn a member of the public into a professional male model.Only the mastectomy scars beneath his pecs reveal that the New Yorker was, in fact, born female. She began the transition from woman to man five years ago.Said Dowling: "I started bodybuilding because I wanted my outer body to feel more masculine, like my inner soul does. I definitely was not expecting all the support, but I'm so happy and proud of the [transgender] community for using its loud voice and realising that we could really do it."And it seems this voice is only becoming louder.The Olympic gold medal-winner and reality TV star Bruce Jenner, 65, has appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair as a woman, a transition he says he has been "getting ready for" all his life.The former British boxing promoter Frank Maloney, 61, announced last year that he was undergoing a sex change and wished to be known as Kellie, while Chelsea Manning - formerly Bradley Manning, the US soldier jailed for 35 years after the WikiLeaks scandal - has spoken from behind bars about her transition. And the most recent issue of British Vogue included an article headed "Man, woman, neither, both? Blurred gender lines are the latest cultural fixation", which went on to state that "trans is having a moment".Though some might balk at the suggestion that a transgender identity is the new must-have accessory - especially in the light of reports of transgender teens' suicides following rejection by their families - the idea that we have reached a watershed in terms of rights for the group has been echoed elsewhere.Last year, Time magazine ran a cover story headlined "The Transgender Tipping Point: America's next civil rights frontier", featuring an interview with Laverne Cox, a trans actress and star of the hit TV show Orange is the New Black, in which she plays a transgender inmate of a women's prison.Said Cox: "Social media has been a huge part of it and the internet has been a huge part of it, where we're able to have a voice in a way that we haven't been able before ... we are setting the agenda in a different way."New Black is not the only mainstream drama to feature trans characters in lead roles. Later this year, BBC Two will air the new, Manchester-set drama Boy Meets Girl , based around a romance between a transgender woman and a younger man.Actress Rebecca Root, who was born Graham and plays the transgender role in the drama, said: "We are being accepted as just another facet of society and I think that can only be for the good."Forty years ago it was immigrants who were fighting for visibility and their rights; 30 years ago it was the gays; now, I think, it's our turn."Though there are currently no official numbers for the transgender population in the UK, a Home Office-funded study estimated that about 1% of the general population is "gender noncomforming" to some degree, with about 20% of those likely to seek medical treatment at some stage.As Cox pointed out in her Time profile: "More of us are living visibly and pursuing our dreams visibly, so people can say: 'Oh yeah, I know someone who is trans.' That demystifies difference." ..