Graham Linehan

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It is the height of male privilege to intrude into women's spaces and expect women to just love it.

Graham Linehan (born May 22, 1968) is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist.

Quotes[edit]

  • I don't think the vast majority of trans women pose any danger to women but you do have to think about the men who do, you know. There are predatory men out there. There are intact men, who I don't believe are actually trans, who are taking advantage of this situation.
  • Trans rights are human rights, but males have a physical advantage over women, and it would be unfair to allow them to compete in women’s sport. Everyone knows this is true. Anyone who pretends they don’t is either a desperate liar like Father Ted, or a brainless simpleton like Father Dougal.
    • Freedom of Speech in Comedy, St Peter's College, Oxford (20 November 2019)
  • You don't tell children that they were born in the wrong body because they're children and they will believe you... There are reports from the Tavistock that children as young as four were brought in. Children are still believing in Santa when they're ten, you know. It's ridiculous. It's absurd.
    • BBC Newsnight (11 February 2020)
  • Trans activists threaten the feminists I support with rape and death threats, OK? So the idea that there's an equivalence between these two... I am absolutely happy to step out of this conversation completely once women like Kathleen Stock and Jane Clare Jones are allowed to speak.
    • BBC Newsnight (11 February 2020)
  • Why do you think we've had sex segregation over the last hundred years? For a laugh? It is the height of male privilege to intrude into women's spaces and expect women to just love it.
  • Almost four years ago I saw that feminists were being bullied, harassed and silenced for standing up for their rights and their children's rights. I decided to use my platform on Twitter to bring attention to what seemed to be an all-out assault on women, on their words, their dignity and their safety. Also, I saw that vulnerable children were being fast-tracked onto a medical pathway that carried severe long-term implications. My position is very simple. I believe everyone should be allowed to talk about these issues. In fact, I believe it is a moral imperative that we do so.
    • House of Lords statement (9 March 2021)
  • First of all, I have a daughter and I have a mum and, you know, I had a wife. I thought their rights were important. I think sometimes I find that conservative spaces still don't realize how key this is, you know. This is like the door that unlocks everything else: critical race theory and everything else.
  • When did Trevor Noah every go viral? I don't think ever. What are Nish Kumar's five best jokes? They've changed their role into, I call them, regime commedians. They're just mouthpieces for what the mob is currently into.
  • One of the things that made me realize something was really badly wrong at Hat Trick was when I handed in a sitcom called Cancelled and they gave back sensitivity notes, and I thought, "The whole sitcom is about how this is ridiculous". The sensitivity reader said, "People might think you're making fun of diversity and inclusion measures."
  • JK Rowling. Again, impeccable credentials as a lefty. But more than that as well, we had both created things that [the left] liked and they knew that if our voices carried, they'd be in trouble.

Quotes about Linehan[edit]

In chronological rather than alphabetical sequence.
  • There's a new sitcom coming on Channel 4 called Father Ted, and the writers are two insane geniuses called Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, and I suppose because of my previous clerical experience they decided I might make a suitable priest.
  • He's one of the top people in the comedy world of television at the moment. Someone whose opinion I trust and taste I trust.
  • I'd like a bit of a laugh, actually, if I've got the Bible and Shakespeare, so I'd like the complete works of Graham Linehan, who wrote Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd... all his writing. I'm just a proper fan.
  • We all know him as maybe the greatest Irish television writer of any memory at all. This guy is, quite simply, a legend.
  • Graham and I have clashed in the past, [...] and we probably aren't each other's favourite people. But I think it's fair to say he's genuinely committed to fighting what he believes is a woman-harming and child-harming ideology (and I agree with him on that); and he talks to some demographics — particularly ordinary blokes, who don't really care so much about niceties of language and aren't put off by his sometimes bludgeoning style — that others don't necessarily reach.

External links[edit]