How Graham Linehan’s gender activism led to career armageddon
To his supporters, Graham Linehan is a brave warrior, whose relentless campaigning. Others see monomania and, at times, cruelty. File photo: Ben Whitley/PA
It was as he was lying on a hospital trolley, after surgery to treat testicular cancer in 2018, that Graham Linehan picked up his phone and first definitively waded into the issue of trans rights.
According to his memoir, , and subsequent media interviews, the Irish comedian could not remember quite what he wrote in those groggy early tweets but it nailed “my colours to the gender-critical mast”.
He did recall the response of one of his readers: “I wish the cancer had won”.
“My ordeal had begun,” Linehan wrote. “Cast adrift, I was about to lose everything – my career, my marriage, my reputation.”
The explanation as to how Linehan went from a nasty Twitter (now X) spat seven years ago to career and personal armageddon lies in a peculiar metamorphosis.
Linehan used to be known as a superlative comedy writer. Today, the creator of , and – most popular of all – , describes himself as a writer “about the current all-out assault on women’s rights”.
His goals are put in almost biblical terms: “To reveal the havoc gender identity had wrought on society, expose those who had enabled it and help bring about its end.”
To his supporters, Linehan is a brave warrior, whose relentless campaigning – online and off – is characterised by some as being ahead of his time, after April’s British supreme court judgment that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex.
Others see monomania and, at times, cruelty. He has sent hundreds of tweets a day at times, often in the early hours.
In 2021, Linehan set up a fake account on a dating app designed to “connect womxn and queer people”, in order to publicly expose people over their use of pronouns.
He was dropped in 2023 by his agent after describing the actor David Tennant as an “abusive groomer”, after the star wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “Leave trans kids alone you absolute freaks."
That this activity has had a huge impact on his career is undoubted.
After the achievements of the , for which he won an Emmy, he struggled to find similar levels of success, but it was his extracurricular activities that prompted the cancellation of a planned stage musical of , the charming sitcom that gently poked fun at the priesthood.
Linehan had refused requests from its producers to stop his campaigning on trans issues or accept £200,000 (€230,000) for removing his name from the musical project.
His 16-year marriage to the comedy writer Helen Serafinowicz ended in 2020. Linehan put the blame on the pressures that came with his campaigning.
“I did it for my wife and daughter, even though we broke up,” he said. “I did it for them and I’d do it again.”
Writing on his Substack account about his recent arrest over tweets suspected of inciting violence, Linehan said he had laughed at first when he saw five armed officers.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he wrote. “‘Don’t tell me! You’ve been sent by trans activists.”
He also shared an audio file of the encounter. According to the audio, an officer explained that his name had been put on the Police National Computer after allegations about his Twitter activity.
He had been flagged as wanted when landing at Heathrow and they were there to arrest him and take him to a police station for questioning.
“Holy shit, I cannot fucking believe it,” he shouted. “You know what this country looks like from America? I am going to sue you into the ground, I am going to sue you into the ground. Fucking bastards, how dare you. I won’t fucking calm down.”
- Guardian
