Pride Portraits

I have built my organization on a shoestring budget with donations primarily using Facebook as a tool to fundraise for the past 5 years. I can't imagine the impact Pride Portraits could make with a substantial operation budget. I have a board which is helpful, but I do all the photography, social media, fundraising and admin work myself. We are a grassroots organization with global impact. I also do not receive a salary for my work, I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of my organization and am not looking for personal gain.  

I am a strong believer that I do not know everything. So I am always open to tools that will help our organization grow and excel. I would like to create direct services to directly impact the trans community, specifically trans women of color.

My name is Eden Torres. I am a 36 year old, trans woman of color. I am a photographer and community activist within the LGBTQIA+ community. I have spent the last 6 years aligning myself with the biggest LGBT orgs in the country and offering support through photography. In 2016 I founded Pride Portraits after the Pulse shooting, as a way for our community to heal. I created not only a celebration of who we are, but a tool for those outside of our community to learn and humanize us. The biggest lesson I learned is how much work there needs to still be done within our own community. I have networked and pushed my way into situations where trans people haven't been before. As a person of color alone, it's a sad reality that we have to work twice as hard as our white counterparts to achieve the same goals. As positive as I try to be, I am hyper aware that I have a huge target on my back as a trans woman of color who is so visible. However, how can I ask other people to be visible, if i don't lead my example. 

The campaign has photographed and collected personal statements from 6,000 individuals around the country including Nobel Prize winners, Academy Award winners, Grammy Award winners, Emmy Award winners; the nations top political leaders, celebrities and social media influencers. 

Pride Portraits has partnered with the most influential LGBTQIA+ organizations as well as some of the worlds largest corporations, universities and bodies of U.S. Government. Pride Portraits has used social media, primarily Facebook, to push LGBTQIA+ visibility to the forefront.

We have followers in 46 countries across the world. Nigeria, Russia, Taiwan, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia where being LGBTQIA+ is either illegal or not culturally accepted. Being able to provide solace to those who aren’t free to be themselves is part of our mission.

Disruptive is a great word for the work that I do as an activist and founder of an national organization. My presence & existence forces people to see a trans woman of color, in a position of power. A position that is often held by white cisgender men. 

I look to one of my personal heroes Cleve Jones, the creator of the AIDS quilt as inspiration to this campaign. He took a simple idea, images and words to humanize the AIDS epidemic. 

When I look at the LGBTQIA+ community, I see a lot of progress. However a lot of that progress is predominantly impacting cisgender white humans. Most of the time males. 

Having lived as a cis gay male for a number of years into adulthood, I have a unique ability to talk to cis folks to help them understand transgender  and gender expansive humans. I also know what they say about trans folks behind closed doors when they THINK no one who is trans is listening. 

With my campaign I use the same approach but with the living. I try to meet people where they are at & be a tool to continue education.

I have had people use Pride Portraits as a platform to come out to their entire social networks. I have have gotten the attention of far right, white supremacist hate groups who loudly oppose the work that I do. I refuse to be silent about equality and equity. Putting faces and personal narratives at the forefront of peoples minds is my ultimate goal. To make people think about the implicit bias.