Plymouth is holding a ‘Ginger Pride’ festival following an increase in hate attacks against people with red hair in the city.
Following a Freedom of Information request, it came to light that a number of incidents have seen victims attacked purely because of the colour of their hair. And local man Stuart Parry is taking action.
Stuart, 43, is planning the event called Gingers: The Gathering – which is set to take place next summer.
“It’s going to be a celebrating for people to see we’re not quite as weird as you all thought,” Stuart told the Mirror. “It’s not going to be a ‘we’re gingers, we’re different’ event, we already know that, it’s just a celebration.
“The place in mind has a capacity of about 150/200, which seems like a reasonable ambition for our first go. We do have a local celebrity who is going to judge a gingerbread decorating competition, and we’re hoping to have live music too.”
Stuart’s idea was sparked following a controversial South Park episode about “Kick A Ginger Day” which was sadly followed by a series of copycat attacks. He now hopes his event will end prejudice against people with red hair, adding: “We want to celebrate the fact that we are little bit different, but not too different.
“The only thing we have in common is our hair colour, but that gives us shared experiences.”
We’re right behind you, Stuart!