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Model, once the face of Rihanna's fashion line, lied about being transgender to avoid backlash over transphobic comments

Carissa Pinkston, 20, faced severe criticism over a set of now-deleted comments where she had argued that ‘being transgender does not make you a woman’
UPDATED JUL 31, 2019

An aspiring model, who once featured as a face of Rihanna's popular Savage x Fenty brand, has confessed that she lied about being transgender so she could escape criticism over a transphobic remark she had made previously.

Carissa Pinkston, 20, faced severe criticism over a set of now-deleted comments she had made on Facebook in May under the name Risa Danielle. In her comments, she had argued that "being transgender does not make you a woman," according to the Independent

After it emerged that the comments were made by Pinkston, she was dropped by her agency Elite Model Management, following which she tried to defend herself by claiming she was a transgender woman. 

In a now-deleted post she uploaded on Instagram, the 20-year-old wrote, "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."

"I transitioned at a very young age and I’ve lived my life as a female ever since," she continued. "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!"

But that post put her in further trouble, with transgender model Aaron Philip calling her out for lying about her gender in a desperate attempt to save her career.

Pinkston lied about being transgender to escape backlash over the transphobic comments she made (Source: Instagram)

"Imagine being a model who got exposed for being a raging transphobe/saying extremely transphobic sh** in the past and then resorting to LYING ABOUT BEING TRANSGENDER ONLINE FOR CLOUT IN ATTEMPT TO SAVE YOUR CAREER…?" he tweeted. "I know this person irl and she is SO CISGENDER??"

Pinkston subsequently posted an apology, which she has since deleted, where she wrote, "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. I’m truly sorry. I’m only 20 and I’m human. I make mistakes but I refuse to let them define me."

She then shared snaps of her with transgender actress Hunter Schafer, who she said was no longer talking to her over the incident.

She also doubled down and insisted she loved trans people. "I hate to do this because this doesn't concern her but, me being 'Transphobic' is stupid as s*** when I love Trans people. F*** these haters for trying to make me look bad."

The 20-year-old later deleted those as well and told Buzzfeed she was "taking full responsibility for what [she] said."

"It was never to avoid any backlash, but I did panic," she said about her lying of her gender.

"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."

"The only reason I had lied was because of the death threats. And I was scared, so I thought they would accept me only if I said I was trans," she claimed, adding, "I got an experience of what a transgender person goes through."

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