“The LGBT community in Belfast has just grown and grown,” says Jake. “It’s absolutely amazing. It’s a really tight community. People are really supportive of one another. I think, I recognise that mostly from coming out as trans a couple of weeks ago. The support I have had from everyone has been amazing.”

As the community blossoms in the Northern Irish capital, the governing bodies remain suspended in an era of intolerance and division. Same sex marriage still isn’t legal, despite the fact it’s been passed in the south of Ireland and in the UK, and the huge public consciousness that believe love is love. Though a motion has gone to parliament and won a majority vote, a ‘petition of concern’ has been used by one of the leading parties, the DUP, to veto it. It’s a part of the law that’s been in place since the Troubles as an emergency peacekeeping device, but it’s been used to block the important legislation getting through.

Last year, artist Joe Caslin created a series of murals in Dublin during the campaigns for marriage equality in the Republic. Now, in a new project, Caslin has created a mural of two women kissing in Belfast’s city centre.

“Love should always win,” says Caslin. “It needs to win. It’s the most basic and primal connection we seek as humans. It connects us, it creates families, it keeps us safe, it is how we work, survive and thrive together. All love should be nourished and respected equally. That is what this project is about, the love, respect and strength of the LGBTQ family.

“Northern Ireland is a vibrant space. A place where people have come to understand and respect their different views and values, and live with it. “Seeing the same approach granted to the LGBTQ community here is important. I’ve met many brave people during this project who understandably want to have the same rights as their LGBTQ contemporaries elsewhere and this project highlights the really tender and personal stories I came across,” he added.

And in a new film with Smirnoff, Bafic has spoken to 17 people from Belfast’s bright LGBT community about what love on the island is like for them, and the obstacles they’ve overcome to triumph as they have so far.

“The LGBT community in Belfast has gone through a very difficult time I suppose, it’s not been easy being a gay person in Northern Ireland,” says Cherrie and Matthew. “We’ve had to fight and get together as a community and hold and support one another. Because it has been so difficult being a gay person in Northern Ireland, it’s made our community stronger, and it’s made our community willing to fight more.

We are very passionate about our rights, and I love the fact that Belfast's a small community. But everyone mucks in, and does the dirty work to try and process our society on, and I think we are doing that, slowly but surely.”