Comedy Writer Arrested By Armed Police In London Over Trans Jokes

Award-winning Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested by heavily-armed police upon arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport over social media posts that were critical of transgenderism.

Linehan, the creator of the critically-acclaimed comedy programs “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” said Monday that he was arrested by five “armed police officers,” a notable distinction as most police in the U.K. do not carry firearms, over three social media posts.

“In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I am not making this up),” Linehan wrote on his Substack.

The posts in question were shared by parental rights in education activist Billboard Chris. “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,” reads one of the posts.

Another post shows a photo of LGBT and transgender activists captioned, “A photo you can smell.”

Linehan speaks at an event in 2013

According to the writer, the sole condition of his release was a vow to stop posting on Elon Musk’s X social media platform.

“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.”

The Free Speech Union announced that it would be supporting Linehan in the case. “We do not believe Graham’s arrest or the bail conditions imposed were lawful. We will be backing him all the way in his fight against these preposterous allegations and the disproportionate response from the police.”

According to an analysis from the Times Of London, police in the United Kingdoms made 12,183 arrests for online posts in 2023, an average of 33 arrests every day.