In this research, fluid flow characteristics of a rotating porous circular cylinder with variable permeability in crossflow are simulated using the multiple relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method (MRT-LBM). The intrinsic phase average governing equations are employed with a single-domain approach, where enforcing the compatibility conditions is not required at the porous-fluid or porous-porous interfaces. Following the idea of polymer coils, in this study, an exponential variation of the isotropic permeability is considered in terms of the radial distance from the center of the porous cylinder. Effects of two pertinent parameters, namely the reference Darcy number, defined in this study, and velocity ratio are investigated on streamlines, pressure coefficient, drag coefficient, and lift coefficient for both homogeneous permeability and variable permeability cases. It is observed that the symmetry of fluid flow and pressure coefficient is violated due to the acceleration and deceleration of the flow, respectively, at the upper and lower regions of the porous cylinder rotating in a clockwise direction which causes a lift force called the Magnus lift. For a rotating porous cylinder with variable permeability, three types of wakes are identified called the asymmetrical detached wake, enveloping wake, and confined wake also reported recently for a rotating porous cylinder with the homogeneous permeability case. It is concluded that for a low reference Darcy number (〖Da〗_0=10^(-6)) the flow structure is nearly identical to that of the homogeneous permeability case. However, for higher values of the reference Darcy number, the deviation from the results of the homogeneous permeability case is escalated due to the exponential increase of the permeability in the radial direction, which causes the Darcy number to shift from low and intermediate to high Darcy zones. The combined effects of the velocity ratio and reference Darcy number cause a complex behavior of the drag coe