The march of the Goths - PICTURES
DEVONSHIRE Green was filled with people of all ages, shapes and sizes on - but there was only one colour to be seen.
The green was a sea of black as around a hundred 'Goths' assembled for a march around the city centre in a plea for tolerance from a society they feel gives them little respect.
Everywhere you looked there was black eyeliner, crosses and an air of melancholy.
Under a banner saying 'The Parade of United Souls' they said the march was not only for Goths but for any of the youth subcultures that weren't accepted by wider society.
Stephen Clark, aged 33, of Wincobank, said: "We are marching to promote the end of prejudice and to bring recognition that just because you look at little bit different you shouldn't be treated differently.
"Some people think we look a bit scary, but we are only human. We have the same rights as everyone else and we just want an end to the bullying and prejudice.
"My partner was talking to a Goth in the Peace Gardens the other day and this girl was saying how her hair had been set on fire by some people at school. Apparently the teacher said to her that it was her own fault for looking like the devil's daughter."
The march on Sunday afternoon was arranged in response to the death of Sophie Lancaster. Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, were jailed for life for killing Sophie Lancaster in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, last August.
She was with her boyfriend Robert Maltby when they were attacked for looking like Goths. She was in a coma after suffering head injuries and never regained consciousness.
March organiser Alicia Thompson, 32, added: "A Goth is someone who has come to terms with their own mortality. They are not people who are obsessed by evil or death but simply that they have come to terms with the fact that it exists."
She added that the police had been very supportive of the march but the council less so.
"One policeman told me he had never had to arrest a Goth in a 44-year police career," she said.
The march tramped off down Fargate, around Arundel Gate and back to Devonshire Green.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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