A model who identifies as “transgender” is suing a New York-based modeling agency for discrimination after the agency allegedly “killed his career” after undergoing so-called “gender-affirming” care.
The model, Frances Coombe, 30, who is Canadian, filed a federal lawsuit in a Manhattan court on Tuesday claiming that Muse Model Management NYC and its president, Conor Kennedy, violated civil rights protecting “his” gender identity (via the New York Post):
Coombe is requesting more than $300,000 in lost income and is seeking damages for emotional distress over the downfall of his reputation and career, the lawsuit said.
“It is no surprise that models evolve their looks, and I had been moving towards more androgyny for quite some time,” he told the Daily Beast in a statement.
The high fashion model said several other models — both male and female — at Muse Model Management had also been moving toward androgynous looks, but did not receive the same pushback.
Coombe claimed that Muse Management refused to allow “him” to do “male work” as a model. She claimed that her contract was “constructively terminated” after this (via NYP):
Around October 2021, Coombe — who identified as non-binary at the time — alleges that Kennedy told him they would still pitch him for women’s jobs as there was no such thing as genderless work in the industry.
“In modeling life, you will be ‘she’ and ‘her’ until you arrive on set, non-binary models are not sought after in the casting process. When you show up for a job you can tell them your pronouns then,” Coombes recalled Kennedy telling him. “We’ll be sending you to women’s wear jobs and you have to separate your private life from your work life.”
In January 2022, Coombe got her own photographs taken as a male and presented them to her agency. Around that time, Coombe began taking testosterone.
In May, Coombe’s photographs were removed from the agency’s website and not replaced until August. In July, in a meeting with the company, Coombe was told that his looks were “insufficiently masculine” to be placed among the agency’s roster of male models.
From that point forward, Coombe saw a “rapid decline” in work opportunities and income, the lawsuit reportedly explained. The agency reportedly made remarks that this was due to Coombe’s change in “gender identity.”
Coombe eventually left the agency, alleging that he was “forced to resign” because it would not allow him to work as a male model.
Taylor Silverman, a women’s sports advocate, shared a photo of Coombe on X, calling the story “today’s news in clown world.”
The “insufficiently masculine” woman.😂 pic.twitter.com/uY2iW2uQbj
— Taylor Silverman (@tmsilverman) December 26, 2023
According to the Post, Coombe is now working as a male model for WE Speak Model Management.