Graham Linehan, an Irish comedy writer who resides in the United Kingdom, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday at Heathrow Airport for allegedly posting a series of social media statements criticizing transgenderism.
Linehan has made anti-transgender comments for over a decade, especially on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
“I was arrested for messages on X when I haven’t even been banned from X. The tweets are not my best work, but they are completely harmless,” Linehan told The Times about his arrest
“I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me and banned from speaking online — all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdresser,” Linehan said further. “To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned the police into their personal goon squad.”
Three posts were made, through various platforms, by Linehan that prompted his arrest at the judgment of the Metropolitan Police. The first one suggested a trans person should be punched in their private parts, which he said was a serious joke, and not an incitement to violence.
The subsequent posts criticized the smell of trans people, along with a post stating, “I hate them” concerning “misogynists and homophobes.”
The conditions of Linehan’s bail were described on his Substack, where he relayed his experience during the arrest.
“I looked at the single bail condition: I am not to go on Twitter. That’s it,” Linehan wrote. “No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes—just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m in the UK, and a demand I face a further interview in October.”
Author JK Rowling and other UK personalities have expressed outrage over the Metropolitan Police’s treatment of Linehan and the threat his arrest poses to free speech.
“What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable,” Rowling said on X.
According to The Guardian, the Metropolitan Police, who arrested Linehan, have been directedto focus on serious crimes amid the public backlash of his arrest
