GLAAD Celebrates Trans Love Stories for Trans Day of Visibility

Today, for Transgender Day of Visibility, GLAAD has launched, in partnership with Instagram, #TransLoveStories, an IGTV and digital portrait series celebrating the love trans people experience in their lives.

Over the next month, GLAAD and Instagram will roll out portraits and IGTV videos of various pairs of trans people to showcase the diversity of trans love stories. Content creators include:

* Marizol Leyva (@iam_marizol), coauthor of new book My Sister: How One's Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both, with her sister Selenis (@selenisleyvaofficial), an actress known for her work in Orange Is the New Black (pictured below)

* Model Chala Tyson Tshitundu (@chala.gram) and their partner, Noah (pictured above)

* Business owner Marli Washington (@2b.marli) and his wife, Adriana

* Content creator AJ Clementine (@ajclementine_) and her boyfriend, Ryan

"Especially during this unprecedented time, we know that it's critical for people to find support and connection through online communities and digital storytelling," said Alex Schmider, creator of the campaign and GLAAD's associate director of transgender representation, in a press release. "Through this campaign we aim to show members of the trans community that we are capable and deserving of finding and sharing love, and to show the people that we are an important and valuable part of their lives. Because of the discrimination trans people face, not everyone can be visible today, but we hope campaigns like this will help continue to create a world where every trans person can be accepted, loved, and celebrated."

Today marks the 10th Annual International Transgender Day of Visibility, which was created by trans advocate Rachel Crandall, the head of Transgender Michigan, in response to the fact that overwhelming majority of stories about transgender people in the media being focused on violence. She hoped to create a day when people could focus on celebrating the lives of transgender people, empowering them to live authentically, while still acknowledging that due to discrimination, not every trans person can or wants to be visible.

Watch GLAAD's featured pairs below.