Miley Cyrus has launched a very exciting Instagram campaign that supports and amplifies the voices of transgender and gender queer people. It's called #InstaPride, and seeks to share personal stories and beautiful portraits to increase acceptance. The individuals featured look happy and comfortable, and are interviewed in depth about their experiences with gender identity. Excerpts from those interviews are used to caption the campaign's Instagram photos, and the full interviews are featured on a new #InstaPride blog. It's refreshing to see a campaign focused on celebrating gender identiy and expression. The campaign makes sure that its audience understands the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation.
The campaign is run by Miley's Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose initiative is to, "rally young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBTQ youth, and other vulnerable populations." One way the foundation raises money to fund programs that support homeless LGBT youth is by recording songs with Miley in a series called, "Happy Hippie Presents: Backyard Sessions". Miley sings lovely acoustic cover songs with many different artists, including Ariana Grande. One of our favorites is Miley duet with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! singing, "True Trans Soul Rebel." You can watch the video below:
We are excited that Miley is accelerating acceptance by fueling the Happy Hippie Foundation and by helping the voices of transgender and genderqueer people be heard. Those voices are not heard very often even within the LGBT community, so #InstaPride is a fantastic initiative. Be sure to check out the rest of the beautiful portraits here!