Donald Trump's inauguration was on Casil McArthur's 18th birthday. He was home in Estes Park, Colorado, wishing he could be out on the streets protesting. "Denver was fucking amazing," he remembers. "Just peaceful protesting, and it was wonderful. I really wanted to be involved but I couldn't do it because of my top surgery." It's very Casil to see the unexpectedly bright side of that turbulent political moment. When we chat a few weeks later in New York, the young model is bursting with enthusiasms and obsessions: cosplay, fashion, the environment, and most of all, transgender activism."I want to help make progressive statements to try and change the world, change society," he tells me, playing with the hem of his pink t-shirt. "So, yes, it sucks being labeled a 'trans male model,' but at the same time if I wasn't, how would kids my age and younger or people older than me find me?"Finding Casil is becoming a whole lot easier. Although he has understandably conflicted feelings about labels, he is fast becoming the first trans male supermodel (trans women like Hari Nef and Andreja Pejic are already well established). During fashion week in New York, he walked the Marc Jacobs runway in a powerful red tracksuit, and he has been captured by legendary photographers including Steven Meisel and Collier Schorr. Meisel spotted him and put him on a six-month exclusive, the fashion industry's equivalent of a Supreme Court clerkship. Guaranteed success.Continue reading on i-D
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