UK police arrest TV writer for criticizing gender ideology, ban him from social media

UK police have arrested TV comedy writer Graham Linehan for criticizing gender ideology on social media.

Linehan, who wrote for popular British shows like “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” has come out strongly against transgenderism. In April, for example, he wrote on X: “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 fails, punch him in the balls.”

When Linehan landed at Heathrow this week, five police officers arrested him, locked him in a cell, and interrogated him over the tweet, as well as others he had written.

During the interrogation, Linehan pushed back.

“The officer conducting it asked about each of the terrible tweets in turn, with the sort of earnest intensity usually reserved for discussing something serious like… oh, I dunno—crime?” he wrote on his Substack. “I explained that the ‘punch’ tweet was a serious point made with a joke. Men who enter women’s spaces ARE abusers and they need to be challenged every time. The ‘punch in the bollocks’ bit was about the height difference between men and women, the bollocks being closer to punch level for a woman defending her rights and certainly not a call to violence. (Not one of my best as one of the female officers said ‘We’re not THAT small’).”

Linehan was eventually released, but not before he was banned from posting on X. He is required to appear for a police interview in October.

“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 crossdressers,” he said. “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.”

Under UK law, citizens who post “harmful content” online face up to two years in prison. Taxpayers have been arrested and imprisoned for voicing criticism against gender ideology, migrant violence, and Islam. Police have even arrested citizens for silently praying outside abortion centers. Britain’s Home Office recently assembled a National Internet Intelligence Investigations team, a law enforcement unit tasked with monitoring anti-immigration posts online. According to a November study, British police spend an estimated 60,000 hours a year investigating reports of non-criminal hate incidents. In 2023 alone, police made an average of 30 arrests per day for “offensive” social media posts. Last year, Starmer responded to anti-immigration protests by promising to crack down on “criminal speech.”

This crackdown on free speech has earned rebukes from both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In April, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration might even consider granting asylum to Brits who flee the UK to avoid arrest over free speech.

Linehan is only one of many British citizens who have been arrested for voicing disfavored opinions.

‘Racism’

Last month, police arrested a disabled man for making an undisclosed “racist” remark during a soccer match. The incident occured at a Liverpool game, where 47-year-old spectator Mark Morgan, who has used a wheelchair since birth, shouted something at Bournemouth player Antoine Semenyo, who is Black.

Semenyo spoke to the referee, after which the game was paused while an urgent meeting was convened between the managers and captains. During half time, Merryside Police arrived and arrested Morgan on charges of “racially aggravated assault” while an announcement was made warning spectators against “racist abuse.”

Merryside Police later confirmed in a statement that Morgan had been arrested for racism and was out on bail for three months, but they did not specify the content of the remark. Morgan’s comment has also not been revealed in any media reports, and even those sitting near the disabled fan appear unaware of what Morgan said.

Criticizing gender ideology

In 2023, Metropolitan Police summoned James Goddard to an interrogation over his social media post mocking rainbow flags.

“These comments are targeting specifically the LGBTQ community would be considered ‘grossly offensive’ thus being in contravention 127 of the Malicious Communication Act 2003,” said police in the summons.

In a similar incident, three police officers arrested a war veteran at his home over a social media post that showed a swastika made of rainbow flags, a commentary on the state-sponsored intimidation of citizens to embrace gender ideology.

In 2023, British police arrested a 16-year-old Leeds girl with autism after the child said she thought one of the officers looked like a “lesbian.”

Leicestershire Police urged citizens to report others for misnaming people who claim to have changed their gender by referring to them by their “previous” name.  

Caroline Farrow, a journalist and mother of five, was the subject of a five-month-long police investigation in 2019 for opinions she expressed on social media regarding transgenderism. According to Farrow, her chief crime was “misgendering” — referring to someone by their actual gender and not the gender they claim to be.

In 2022, Farrow was also arrested in her home for “malicious communications and harassment” while she was making dinner for her children. Photos provided by Farrow show police forcing their way into her house. When she asked to see a warrant, they replied, “We don’t need one.” Police seized several electronic devices, including from her husband’s parish next door. They then brought Farrow outside where a female officer subjected her to a body search and took her to the station.

Last year, The Gold Report detailed how London’s Metropolitan Police investigated Maya Forstater for criticizing a transgender doctor who boasted that his patients were unaware of his true gender. Forstater, who heads the women’s rights group Sex Matters, had voiced concerns about whether the patients of Dr. Kamilla Kamaruddin were giving their informed consent. In a tweet, Forstater said Dr. Kamaruddin “enjoys intimately examining female patients without their consent.” Police summoned the 51-year-old Forstater to Charing Cross Police Station, where they threatened her with arrest for “malicious communications.” They interrogated her about whether she meant “to target a member of the transgender community” and if she understood that her “tweet could be perceived as transphobic.” Police also wanted to know if Forstater had any “remorse” for her tweet.

Silent prayer

British police have arrested and issued fines to citizens who were silently praying in their heads while standing near abortion centers. Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) prohibit “protesting, namely engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means. This includes but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.”

An off-color costume

Last year, police arrested British citizen David Wootton for posting photos of himself on social media showing him dressed as terrorist Salman Abedi for Halloween. In 2017, Abedi detonated a suicide bomb at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and wounding over a thousand more.

Insulting a BBC journalist

British protestors who demonstrated against lockdowns in 2021 were sentenced to community service for insulting a BBC journalist. 

Holocaust references

A 63-year-old Jewish father is facing prison time for offending a “progressive rabbi” with a Holocaust reference. Rupert Nathan committed the offense when he posted criticism of Gabriel Kanter-Webber on a friend’s Facebook post. He referred to Kanter-Webber, who heads the Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, as a “creep,” a “fake Rabbi,” and a “kapo boy.” Kapos were Jews in concentration camps who were deputized by the Nazis with authority over other Jewish prisoners.

In response to the “kapo” remark, Kanter-Webber reported Nathan to the police, who came to Nathan’s home and arrested him in front of his 12-year-old daughter. He was charged with the crime of malicious communications and detained for 12 hours. His case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service for criminal proceedings and he faces up to two years in prison.

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