Why Did This Model Lie About Being Trans?
Well, this is wild.
Out reports that model Carissa Pinkston lied about being transgender after she was “fired” (from an unnamed job) for posting transphobic rhetoric on Facebook. In a screed since screenshotted and posted to Twitter, Pinkston, who has modeled for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty line, Coach, and Tiffany & Co., wrote that “being Transgender does NOT make you a Woman. It makes you simply transgender.” After a backlash began mounting, the model added that “I really do want to take back my Trans comment because if they can say they’re Women i can reclaim my virginity.”
Once she received social media backlash, Pinkston went live on Instagram to respond to the controversy, but with muted audio. She then posted a statement on the app. “I wasn’t ready to come about it yet but today I got fired and I’ve been receiving hate mail and death threats ever since so I’m being forced to tell the truth,” she wrote. “I’m Transgender. I transitioned at a very young age and I’ve lived my Life as a female ever since. It’s been very hard to keep this secret but what I said about Trans-Women is a direct reflection of my inner securities and I have since come to realize that I am a Woman. WE ALL ARE!”
Friends and colleagues immediately began to dispute Pinkston’s claims. Model Aleece Wilson commented on the post, writing that “it’s terrible and disgusting that you’re lying to thousands of people …. That clout shit is sad.”
“Imagine being a model who got exposed for being a raging transphobe/saying estremely transphobic shit in the past and then resorting to LYING ABOUT BEING TRANSGENDER ONLINE FOR CLOUT IN ATTEMPT TO SAVE YOUR CAREER …?” model Aaron Phillip wrote on Twitter. “I know this person irl and she is SO CISGENDER??”
Pinkston eventually admitted that she had lied about being trans. “I apologize for any transphobic remark I’ve ever made towards the Trans community,” she wrote in a since-deleted post. “I panicked and I thought if I came out as Trans that I could somehow make things better for myself but it appears I’ve only made things worse. I’m truly sorry. I’m only 20 and I’m human. I make mistakes but I refuse to let them define me. I hope you all can forgive me and move on from this because I’m so much more than this incident and I’m not a coward.”
She also shared images of herself with model and actress Hunter Schafer on Instagram stories. “Me being ‘transphobic’ is stupid as shit when I love Trans people,” Pinkston wrote. “Fuck these haters trying to make me look bad.”
