Miley Cyrus Starts Instagram Campaign to Celebrate Transgender Activism

Miley Cyrus will spend the next two weeks sharing stories of transgender people on Instagram as part of the #InstaPride movement for her LBGT-friendly Happy Hippie Foundation, she announced Monday.

According to Time, Cyrus has partnered up with the image-sharing site in an effort to boost awareness and acceptance of people across the gender spectrum.

“Anyone should be able to express how they feel, without question, and be able to live,” Cyrus told Time on the set of the #InstaPride photo shoot, which featured a large group trans people.

Nineteen-year-old trans-male student Leo Sheng, from Michigan, was featured in the first post on Monday.

“I hope that my portrait can inspire those who have the ability to share their own stories to find their voices,” Sheng said on Instagram.

“I’m 19 years old and a film student living in Michigan. For the past year and a half, my Instagram photos have been about my transition-filled life — graduating high school, starting college, making new connections,” Sheng added. “But the most obvious theme has been my transition from female to male.”

“#hellomynameis Leo Sheng (@isupersheng). I’m 19 years old and a film student living in Michigan. For the past year and a half, my Instagram photos have been about my transition-filled life — graduating high school, starting college, making new connections. But the most obvious theme has been my transition from female to male. For me, a picture really does say a thousand words. I was recently invited by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus) to be part of a Happy Hippie Foundation (@happyhippiefdn) and Instagram portrait series. It was run and shot by Miley herself and showcased stories of trans and gender-fluid Instagrammers from around the country. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been in a room with so much love, pride and respect for everyone’s journeys. I hope that my portrait can inspire those who have the ability to share their own stories to find their voices. If there’s anything that the last few years have taught me, it’s that living an unapologetic existence is the most freeing thing you can do.” Photo by @mileycyrus for #happyhippiepresents #instapride

A photo posted by Instagram (@instagram) on Jun 15, 2015 at 6:22am PDT

I can stand on a stage with my tits out,” Cyrus told Time. “It’s so unfair that I’m allowed to be like this and there are two men that can’t get married in f—ing Nashville right now.”

Cyrus founded the Happy Hippie Foundation earlier this year to assist LGBT teens struggling with homelessness and other issues.

“All these things that I do get all this attention,” she told Out magazine in May. “But then what do I do once I have everyone’s attention?”

During an interview with Paper magazine last week, Cyrus discussed her bisexuality, gender fluidity, and her social activism.

“I remember telling [my mom] I admire women in a different way,” she said of coming out at age 14. “And she asked me what that meant. And I said, ‘I love them. I love them like I love boys.’ And it was so hard for her to understand. She didn’t want me to be judged and she didn’t want me to go to hell.”

She also described her parents, Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus, as “conservative-ass mother—ers,” and stated, “I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn’t involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that’s legal, I’m down with. Yo, I’m down with any adult — anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me.

She added: “I don’t relate to being boy or girl, and I don’t have to have my partner relate to boy or girl.”