- Canadian catwalk model Frances Coombe, 30, is suing his former employer for allegedly forcing him to keep dressing as a woman after he transitioned
- Filed in Manhattan federal court, Coombe’s lawsuits demands a jury trial and $300,000 in income he lost due to alleged gender discrimination
- Muse Management and CEO Conor Kennedy denied any wrongdoing and his lawyer said he looks forward to clearing his name
A Canadian catwalk model is suing his New York employer for civil rights violations, claiming his career was destroyed after he came out as transgender.
Frances Coombe, 30, says Muse Management and its CEO Conor Kennedy dropped him from their roster for being ‘insufficiently masculine’ to work as a man, and forced him to continue modeling women’s clothes.
Filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, the runway star’s lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks damages of an unspecified amount for alleged emotional distress along with damage to his reputation, career and more than $300,000 of income.
Kennedy’s lawyer, Carlos M Carvajal, described the lawsuit as ‘surprising and disappointing’ and said he looked forward to clearing the CEO and his company of ‘any wrongdoing’. DailyMail.com has also contacted Coombe and his lawyer.
Born a woman, Coombe was discovered by Muse Management in his hometown of Toronto at the age of 18, and he has featured on the runway wearing high fashion brands including Marc Jacobs, Saint Laurent, MiuMiu and Gucci as a female model.
He worked for Muse Management from 2011 until March 30 2023, initially as a woman with ‘a gender expression that was female’, according to the lawsuit.
But over the years, Coombe’s style became increasingly androgynous ‘as expressed through hair body styling and clothing’ according to legal documents.
On October 15, 2021, Coombe told Muse about a change in his gender identity, ‘expressed at that time as a non-binary identity’, the lawsuit says.
But Muse told him he’d have to stay on the women’s board and that ‘clients will only look at you as a woman’.
‘We’ll be sending you to women’s wear jobs and you have to separate your private life from your work life,’ the company allegedly said.
‘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.’
Coombe said he was forced to wear women’s clothes including bikinis in his promo pictures, and Muse refused to allow him to wear boxers or men’s shoes.
On February 11, 2022, the model began taking testosterone hormones and changed his pronouns to he/him – while telling Kennedy and Muse about the changes.
But on May 27 last year, he was ‘removed from the Muse website completely without warning’ until August 25.
Company executives took Coombe into a meeting on July 2 to discuss his gender changes.
‘Although Muse’s male models includes many who are androgynous, and similar in appearance to Mr. Coombe’s current appearance, his request was refused’, with Kennedy telling him he was ‘insufficiently masculine’, the lawsuit says.
‘Top officers’ at the company told Coombe he had to ‘appear more masculine’ which the model says ‘imposed a restriction on his work based on gender stereotypes’.
Another meeting was set up between Coombe and company executives in July 2022, and one men’s modeling board representative repeatedly called him ‘she’ and ‘girl’ despite knowledge of their gender identity, he said.
Coombe found this ‘upsetting’ and complained about it – but the exec persisted in misgendering him, explaining: ‘I’m gay, so I call everyone she and girl’, the lawsuit says.
The Canadian model made several complaints to Muse and Kennedy saying he’d been treated ‘inappropriately because of asserting his male gender identity’ and refused jobs.
But this prompted the company to stop promoting Coombe, ‘causing a rapid decline in his work opportunities and income’, the lawsuit says.
The runway star submitted a written complaint to Muse on March 28 this year saying he had been discriminated against to the point where he felt forced to resign.
His lawsuit says the company did nothing to address this complaint and simply accepted his resignation.
Coombe claims he also lost income because the company misclassified him as an independent contractor despite him being exclusively signed to them as a permanent staffer for 12 years.
The model has requested damages including back pay, front pay, and benefits to compensate him for his ‘financial losses and emotional distress’, along with punitive damages to ‘deter defendants from engaging in similar discriminatory conduct’.
Coombe also wants an injunction against Muse and Kennedy to prevent ‘further discriminatory conduct based on gender identity or any other protected characteristic’, along with legal fees incurred.
‘Muse represented Frances Coombe for over 10 years as a model,’ Kennedy’s lawyer Carlos M Carvajal told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘It’s surprising and disappointing that Frances, after a decade of working together, has filed this lawsuit that lacks merit and is legally flawed.
‘We look forward to clearing Muse and Mr. Kennedy of any alleged wrongdoing.’
