The month of June across the globe is the month dedicated to LQBT+ Pride, although celebrating your pride can be done year-round with no limitation. As an avid supporter of equal rights and human rights, seeing pride flags up and down the river in Dublin truly warmed my heart. There are many countries that condemn equal rights or just flat out ignore the rights to those that are LGBT+. I am pleased to see how accepting Irish people are of everyone regardless of gender, race and sexual orientation. Being from Atlanta, I regularly attend equal rights marches, and attend the annual Pride Festival at Piedmont Park.

I’m glad I was able to capture these two flags because they are flying high over a “Traditional Irish Pub” and what better place to experience love than in a pub full of happy drunk people (aside from the small population that enjoy starting pub fights). I am 3000+ miles away from home, and still feel very welcomed and feel a strong sense of belonging and home in a country that I’m traveling to for the first time.

Love is Love. Witnessing and experiencing this first hand in another country lifts my spirits high above the clouds and restores my hope for humanity as we push forward into a more accepting society. I couldn’t be more thrilled about the fact that to me, Dublin is just like a foreign Atlanta to a certain extent. As the days go by and our trip grows slowly to its end, I’m realizing that Ireland is my home away from home.