Nikita Dragun (left) and Taylor Caniff (right)
Nikita Dragun (left) and Taylor Caniff (right)
MEGA/GC Images/Getty Images (left) and Steve Granitz/Getty Images
  • Nikita Dragun posted footage of Taylor Caniff calling her a "dude."
  • Dragun, who is transgender, said the clip came from Caniff's "close friends" Instagram story.
  • "This is how trans people die," Dragun said in a tearful Instagram video.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTuber and former Vine star Taylor Caniff misgendered Nikita Dragun and said he told men that the trans woman was "a dude" in footage Dragun shared on Instagram.

Dragun's video post, which now has over five million views, featured clips she said came from Caniff's "close friends" Instagram story, a feature allowing users to broadcast story posts to specific followers.

In the clips purportedly from the "close friends" story, Dragun can be seen leaving a club with two men. Caniff – who has over two million followers on Instagram and is known for being a part of MagCon, a popular content collective on the now-defunct video app Vine – said he approached the men and asked if they knew Dragun was "a dude."

"They looked like I threw a stun grenade in the back of the security lounge," Caniff, known for his collaborations with influencers like Cameron Dallas and Nash Grier, said in the video. "They were like 'bro, what?' and I was like 'yeah, that was a dude,' and they could not believe it."

A post shared by Mother of Draguns (@nikitadragun)

Dragun has been openly transgender since 2015. The influencer has over nine million Instagram followers and is now a part of the TikTok collective the Hype House, which will be the focus of an upcoming Netflix reality series.

"This is what it's like to be trans," Dragun said in the tearful Instagram video. "My livelihood is constantly threatened by just living my life as a trans person."

Dragun said that she was "embarrassed" to have to show the video but that it's the reality of what trans people deal with.

"This is how trans people die," she said in the video. "We must stop trans hate because it leads to trans violence and people lose their lives or even worse, they take their own lives because experiencing things like this just breaks my heart."

Violence against trans people is a growing problem globally, with the Human Rights Campaign reporting that at least 44 transgender people were killed in the US in 2020, making it the deadliest year on record for trans people in the US. Insider's Madison Hall and Canela López reported that the number might actually be higher, as law enforcement officials routinely misgender victims.

After Dragun posted her video, Caniff responded to the controversy in an Instagram Live. Caniff alleged that his "clout-ridden" friends had leaked the footage and that his comments were supposed to be a "joke," Dexerto reported.

Dragun responded in a tweet calling Caniff "TRANSPHOBIC."

Dragun and Caniff did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Read the original article on Insider