It’d be nice to think that a story of a model pretending to be trans to avoid judgement might mark peak identity issues, but alas, it’s probable we’re nowhere near an apex. According to Out, the mess started for New York-based model Carissa Pinkston in May 20109 when she made two clearly anti-trans statement on Twitter. In one she wrote, “Being transgender does not make you a woman. It makes you simply transgender.”
Pinkston’s anti-trans comments came and went without any media comment, but in mid-July 2019 she addressed push back from within the fashion community, claiming she had lost a modeling gig as well as followers. On Instagram the freckled-face model wrote, “I wasn’t ready to come out about it yet but today I got fired and I’ve been receiving hate male and death threats ever since so I’m being forced to tell the truth. I’m transgender. I transitioned at a very young age and I’ve lived my life as female ever since.”
In response to the trans claim, Pinkston was immediately checked by model Aleece Wilson, who responded on Pinkston’s page with a since-deleted comment reading, “It’s terrible and disgusting that you’re lying to thousands of people. That clout shit is said.” Wilson also pointed out that in the years she’d known Pinkston she’d never once mentioned being trans and for the kicker, noted she had seen naked baby images of Pinkston, who was clearly a girl.
Model Aaron Philip also weighed in on Twitter where he wrote, “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??”
As the saying goes, it’s the cover up that gets you, and indeed, the story took on another surreal-fueled level of energy once Pinkston attempted to claim a fake identity.
Eventually aware she made everything ten times worse, Pinkston threw up a white flag and admitted she had lied about being trans, but only after claiming to at least one person that it was her schizophrenic sister who was responsible for the original trans claim. (Sheesh!)
Blaming the stupidity of youth, Pinkston finally wrote, “I apologize for any transphobic remark I’ve ever made to the trans community. I panicked and thought if I came out as trans that I could somehow make things better for myself but appears I’ve only made things worse. I’m truly sorry. I’m only 20 and I’m human.”
Like we said, this should be peak identity ish but it probably won’t be!
Check out Pinkston’s social media comments below, starting with her since-deleted comments on transgender women.
