Graham Linehan is an anti-trans obsessive, not a free speech martyr

Linehan was stopped at Heathrow Airport, taken to a cell and eventually released on bail (Picture: ANL/Shutterstock)

‘If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.’

So said Father Ted creator and anti-trans activist Graham Linehan on X, leading to his arrest, according to a recording posted on his website.

Linehan was stopped at Heathrow Airport, taken to a cell and eventually released on bail, pending further investigation.

The arrest sparked outrage – there were accusations of police overreach, JK Rowling called it ‘totalitarian’, and Wes Streeting hinted at a review of laws concerning online speech. 

While I’m not at liberty to comment on active legal proceedings, I will say that sending five armed cops to arrest someone over some tweets is a bit overkill. 

However, I think the response to Linehan’s legal troubles highlight something much worse: The way his defenders fail to mention his years of anti-trans campaigning, and the awful things he has said online in the past. 

This man is not a hero of free speech (Picture: Lucy North/PA Wire)

Transphobia in the UK has become so normalised that people can apparently call for trans people to be punched, but still somehow be the victim.

It is not clear to me how a trans person using a public toilet, say, in the circumstances Linehan tweets about is a ‘violent, abusive act’, but I would argue that telling his 600,000 followers to punch trans people in certain circumstances is.

What has happened is a predictable outcome for those who becomes radicalised, obsessive and chronically online. 

They need to create more and more outrageous content in order to generate outrage – it’s indistinguishable from troll behaviour – and that can come with legal implications, as I proved in my case against Laurence Fox.

But it’s the portrayal of this anti-trans activist as some kind of martyr or hero that really grates. 

A look at his recent tweets include calling Pink News (a gay news website) paedophile employers, tweeting a photo of a stranger (possibly trans) to call them a ‘mentally ill pervert’ and numerous tweets about those he labels groomers. 

Graham Linehan has shared the X posts he believes got him arrested (Picture: Adrian Langtry/Shutterstock)

This, in my view, is not normal. He’s not, as Julia Hartley Brewer said this morning, someone I would regard as ‘such a genuinely lovely man.’ And certainly he is not a martyr.

I’ve even had my own run-ins with Linehan. He called me a ‘grotesque sex clown’ on X for appearing on the news in drag when discussing a boycott of Eurovision. 

Quite ironic from the creator of Father Ted, a show which from memory features many men wearing frocks.

I’ve even had my own run-ins with Linehan (Picture: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

This man is not a hero of free speech, he’s not some brave martyr, he is a single-issue obsessive hate monger whose feed is full of bile towards trans people. 

It is SO important that we call out his obsession rather than holding him up as a standard bearer for free speech. Especially when, if you ask me, there are much more glaring examples of police overreach taking place.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, while not commenting on the specifics of Linehan’s case, said that his government ‘wants to be policing streets, not policing tweets’ which will come as a surprise for those arrested on Tuesday after expressing online support for the Defend our Juries campaign. 

It seems like some of those concerned about Linehan’s arrest aren’t truly concerned about free speech, but are only concerned with their freedom to attack trans identities. 

The arrest, whatever you think of it, of one transphobic man, must not be the issue which causes a referendum on free speech. We cannot let transphobes control this narrative.

Sure, let’s have some good faith debate about the policing of online content, about police overreach, about the limits of free speech. 

But let’s do it about a real issue, not in defence of this obsessive, and not in defence of allegedly stirring up violence against marginalised communities. 

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