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Model Carissa Pinkston Faces Backlash After Lying About Being Transgender

Photo: Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images.
Carissa Pinkston, a model who's worked for Nike, Marc Jacobs, Prabal Gurang, Edie Parker, and others, is under fire for admitting that she lied about being transgender — a claim designed to save herself from transphobic comments she'd made previously.
Earlier this month, Twitter user @CeceliaJinks called Pinkston out, furnishing screenshots of Facebook posts she allegedly wrote back in May under the name Rissa Danielle. One post read: "Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender." In another post, Pinkston doubled down on her comment. "Being Transgender does not make you a woman in a Transgender context according to gender and sex," she wrote. "This is how they want to be perceived. In a biological context there are Females and Males. This is the world in 2019."
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A few weeks later, Pinkston recanted her statements and apologised — which is when she came out as transgender. "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 in a note posted to her Instagram. “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 realise that I am a Woman. WE ALL ARE!"
Models within the LGBTQ+ community then spoke out against Pinkston's claims. Aaron Phillip — Elite Models' first trans, Black, disabled model — condemned Pinkston, writing, "imagine being a model who got exposed for being a raging transphobe/saying extremely transphobic shit in the past and then resorting to LYING ABOUT BEING TRANSGENDER ONLINE FOR CLOUT IN ATTEMPT TO SAVE YOUR CAREER...? i know this person irl and she is SO CISGENDER?? Y’ALL I-?"
Finally, Pinkston admitted to lying on Instagram and posted another note to apologise. She also asked the transgender community to educate her "about the topic."
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