Miley Cyrus celebrates transgender Chicago couple in #InstaPride campaign

When his fiancee told him that Miley Cyrus reached out to her on Twitter to be part of a social media campaign highlighting the transgender community, Hyde Parker Myles Brady thought they were being punked.

But it wasn’t a joke.

Myles, 33, who identifies as transmasculine, and his fiance Precious Davis, 29, who identifies as transfemale, caught the music star’s eye.

The transgender couple is featured Wednesday in Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation #InstaPride campaign of portraits Cyrus shared to raise awareness of the LGBTQ community and the injustices they face.

“Miley herself talked about how inspired she was of Myles and my – our love story as two trans individuals,” Davis said.

Cyrus shared on her personal and her foundation’s Instagram accounts – where the campaign continues – how the couple caught her eye: “As a transgender couple, they speak out together to bring attention to the issues affecting the transgender community, especially transgender people of color.”

Their love story began when Brady first met Davis at the Center on Halsted in 2013 to help spread the word about his trans support group on the South Side.

Brady, who grew up in Chicago, said he started his transition when he was born. He said he told his mom at age 5, “I think I’m a boy like my dad.” With supportive parents, he began dressing masculine at a young age although at times like when he went to church he would have to wear a dress instead of a suit and tie. But he didn’t openly come out as transgender until years later.

Davis didn’t start identifying as transgender until three years ago. She had done drag performances in college and recalled instances growing up in Nebraska when she played in girls clothes, walked around the house in her sister’s high heels and tied blankets around her waist. But she said it wasn’t until she took her first hormone shot that she finally felt whole.

It was love at first sight for Brady, who works as a transgender outreach coordinator at the Howard Brown Health Center in Uptown.

“The moment I saw Precious, she instantly took my breath away,” he said. “I saw my entire future flash before my eyes. I never wanted kids but the first second I saw her, I was like I want kids. I want my daughters to have her face. I want to carry her baby, everything. I was in love,” Brady said.

He chased her for a year, sending her flowers, writing her poems and bringing her lunch at the office. They officially became a couple last June when they were at the Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia.

He finally won her over at dinner with her friends. “In comes Myles at dinner and he whispered all these sweet nothings in my ear. He’s like, ‘You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to be with anyone else but you,'” said Davis, now and works as Assistant Director of Diversity Recruitment Initiatives at Columbia College Chicago.

“It was the most beautiful thing that I had ever heard from any man in my life. It was honest. It was authentic and my heart just melted. In that moment, it felt like I had made a date with destiny and it was meant to be,” she said.

Earlier this year, Brady proposed to Davis on Feb. 3 by the bean in Millennium Park. A wedding is planned for next year.

Now, their photos are shared on Cyrus’ Instagram and Twitter accounts.

“We are celebrating love, support, and resilience with portraits of transgender and gender expansive individuals from all walks of life,” the Happy Hippie Foundation website said.

Cyrus rolled out the red carpet VIP treatment when the couple arrived in Hollywood a couple weeks ago for the photo shoot.

“It was joy to be around her. I didn’t feel like I was hanging around one the world’s biggest pop stars. I felt like I was hanging around with a friend that I’ve known for a long time, having fun,” Davis said.

She commended Cyrus for using her platform to raise awareness and start conversations that can lead to opportunities for greater acceptance and diversity inclusion.

“She’s trying to create a voice and a space to have these conversations of finding an answer and finding resources to serve these young people,” Davis said.

The transgender community faces harassment, discrimination, violence and reported higher rates of attempted suicide.

“Me and one of the other people, Leo, were talking about when we were younger we never thought that just being our true authentic selves opportunities like this would come our way. Because usually you don’t hear about that, you hear about the sad stories,” Brady said.

“It’ll definitely raise awareness of what’s going on within the trans community and what’s going on within the homeless LGBT community,” he said.

The #InstaPride campaign creates visibility of the transgender community, which can be a catalyst for change, Davis said.

“It shatters the stigma of being transgender and it says we are out, we are proud, and we are resilient,” Davis said. “It creates this continuum for young people to look to and say those 14 individuals are living out and proud, living their dreams and transgender is not something that inhibits you from achieving your dreams and goals. You can be anything you want in this life.”

Davis and Brady were featured days ahead of the 46th annual Chicago Pride Parade set for Sunday.

The couple in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for the White House LGBT pride reception were impressed by the proud transgender youth they met at the photo shoot.

“To see them so confident in their identity and really breaking the gender binary and these stereotypical norms of what it is to be a boy or a girl, that to me is inspirational,” Davis said.

“To see these young people living in their truth authentically in this moment of history I think is powerful.”