Over 4,000 people have signed a petition requesting RTÉ to reconsider their decision to air a segment featuring Graham Linehan as part of their upcoming Prime Time special on trans issues in Ireland.

The trailer for tomorrow’s Prime Time, says the episode will focus on “the implication of the explosion in the numbers of young people saying they want to change gender”.

It continues, “but Government proposals to allow them to side their gender are not welcomed by all”. At this point Linehan’s commentary slot appears in which he compares gender dysphoria to anorexia:

“You do not tell kids that they have been born into the wrong body just as you don’t tell anorexics that they are fat.”

The trailer also asks why the debate that is occurring in the UK has not been an issue in Ireland.

In the petition, which was started by Hollie Leddy-Flood and Aoife Martin, they say that “RTÉ has a duty to present this issue in a fair-minded and balanced way and not to try and inflame a toxic debate similar to what is occurring in the UK.”

The petition continues: “We accept and support our trans citizens. We want them to be treated with dignity and respect and equality and we want it to remain that way.”

Ireland’s feminist circles have long been accepting of the transgender community and their inclusion in Irish feminist spaces has never been up for debate.

This was demonstrated when over 1,000 Irish feminists signed an open letter to British TERFs stating that they are not welcome here.

Worldwide, a study found that 80% of women believe trans women should have equal rights.

As well as signing the petition on change.org, hundreds have continued to send emails to RTÉ and the BAI stating that Linehan is not qualified to comment on the subject.

This morning BeLonG To tweeted about the “dangerous views” seen in the trailer for the show:

“It is alarming & concerning to see dangerous views relating to the experience of trans youth in the preview of Tuesday’s RTE PrimeTime. Trans young people & their families contributed to the process for legal gender recogntion [and] their expert voices [and] experiences need to be heard.”

https://twitter.com/BeLonG_To/status/1087322192508084224

YouTuber Raises $200k For Mermaids Charity ‘To Spite’ Linehan

Last year when Mermaids was awarded funding from the National Lottery, Linehan urged people to oppose it, saying the charity which supports trans children and teenagers, were pushing an ‘extreme ideological agenda.’

YouTuber Hbomberguy has raised $200,000 for Mermaids ‘to spite’ Graham Linehan.

The YouTuber said: “I chose Mermaids specifically, because when they were designated some funding via the National Lottery, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer who did some work on a good show 20 years ago, a very normal man who is very angry about trans people all day nowadays, went on Mumsnet and told them to email the National Lottery en masse

“Well done, Graham… now, tons of people know about Mermaids, and support them just to spite you!”