Graham Linehan has been permanently banned from Twitter for posting an anti trans comment under a celebration of Pride. The Irish comedy writer has made no secret of his views regarding the trans community, regularly sharing them on the social media site, but Twitter decided his latest post was his last.
The offending comment was made in response to a post by the Women’s Institute which wished their trans members a happy Pride. Linehan tweeted, “men aren’t women tho”.
Twitter stated that Linehan was subsequently banned because of “repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation”. Trans activists and their allies celebrated his removal from the site.
https://twitter.com/shonfaye/status/1276809246806597632?s=20
Linehan has in the past been given a police warning for attacking a trans activist online, has compared trans activism to Nazism and campaigned on the site Mumsnet to have UK lottery funding removed from the trans kids’ charity, Mermaids.
The degeneration of Graham Linehan from celebrated comedian into an online troll who spent 24/7 bullying trans people, and particularly women who support trans rights, was extremely grim.
This was a long overdue decision by Twitter. Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈 https://t.co/sZYrEB7m92
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 27, 2020
After his suspension, Linehan went onto the aforementioned Mumsnet to try and drum up sympathy and support, but it did not go down well. “I’m really sorry to barge in on you Mumsnetters with my problems, but I’ve finally been suspended from Twitter and I have a feeling they’re either going to ban me or just take my verified tick. I’ve submitted an appeal with Twitter and the Better Business Bureau but I thought I’d post here too so people knew what was going on.”
The message continued, “Recently, I keep getting locked out of my account and forced to delete tweets to get back in. The latest tactic by trans rights activists is to run a search for any time Ive used the word ‘groomer’, a phrase Twitter recently decided was Not Allowed.”
“I still use the word ‘grooming’ in various permutations because I believe that gender ideology is a form of societal grooming.” Readers of his post were not as sympathetic as he had possibly hoped.
Graham Linehan getting Twitter banned, then going over to Mumsnet for sympathy didn’t go down quite how he’d hoped… pic.twitter.com/eYdm66U7qG
— Helen🏳️⚧️✊🏻💕 (@mimmymum) June 27, 2020
He also went on to blame his banning on Twitter’s “high percentage of trans-identified employees” and that the platform was “silencing feminists and their allies who run afoul of its absurd ‘misgendering’ policies.”
https://twitter.com/MunroeBergdorf/status/1276924257017180161?s=20
As one of the countless people directly targeted by Graham Linehan I am glad his account has been permanently suspended. I think he is deeply troubled. Twitter has become a dark place in the last few years with blatant transphobia and hate 😔
— Susie Green (@green_susie100) June 27, 2020
If you have been affected by this story or would like to show your support to the trans community, please visit our friends at TENI.
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