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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@SavageXFenty one of your models, carissa pinkston, is lying to her entire following saying that she’s transgender when she is in fact not. she has also made multiple transonic statements on social media’s. pic.twitter.com/MDDUOpiRlG
— cec? (@CeceliaJinks) July 23, 2019
A few weeks later, Pinkston recanted her statements and apologized — 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 realize that I am a Woman. WE ALL ARE!"
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-? pic.twitter.com/GtB55p8Cr5
— aaron philip (@aaronphilipxo) July 23, 2019
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-?"
AAAAAAA SHE KEEPS POSTING MORE pic.twitter.com/WJIP9aZbAS
— Maci Laforge (@macypoops) July 27, 2019
Finally, Pinkston admitted to lying on Instagram and posted another note to apologize. She also asked the transgender community to educate her "about the topic."