Model lies about being transgender after receiving backlash for anti-trans comments: report
By Gerren Keith Gaynor | Fox News
A fashion model who recently admitted to lying about being transgender after making anti-trans comments online says she’s now “taking full responsibility” for her actions.
Carissa Pinkston, 20, came out last week as transgender after she caused controversy over statements she shared on Facebook suggesting transgender women were not women.
“Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender,” Pinkston, who’s modeled for Marc Jacobs and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty, wrote in May.
“This is how they want to be perceived. In a biological context, there are Females and Males. This is the world in 2019.”
After she was ridiculed and subsequently fired from her agency, Pinkston took to social media again to explain that her comments stemmed from her own “inner insecurities” as a transgender.
“I wasn’t ready to come out 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. I’m Transgender,” Pinkston wrote.
“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 insecurities and I have since come to realize that I am a Woman...WE ALL ARE!”
Aaron Philips, a transgender model who knows Pinkston, later took to Twitter to accuse her of lying about her gender identity. Days later, Pinkston issued another statement confessing that it was indeed a lie.
“I apologize for any transphobic remark I’ve ever made towards the Trans community. 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,” she said.
“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.”
In an interview with Buzzfeed News published Tuesday, Pinkston explained, “I definitely feel like a trans person in a way” because she was bullied in high school.
Pinkston, however, denied that she lied about being transgender to "cover up" her initial comments.
"It was never to avoid any backlash, but I did panic," Pinkston said. "And I do know what it’s like to be bullied and picked on for being different. And I wanted to fit in a community. Just in that moment, I didn’t know what to do."
She’s since deleted her apologies online, the outlet reports.
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