Father Ted creator Graham Linehan appeared to compare transgender activism to Nazism.
The comedy writer and director has sparked controversy over the past few months with his views on transgender people and trans activists, which he claims threaten the safety of women.
And in a new interview, the 50-year-old compared trans activists to Nazis, saying: When things are wrong, you should be allowed to point out that theyre wrong.
Linehan was speaking on Derrick Jensen Resistance Radio about his beliefs and the response to them when he said: People do get very, very nervous… its like putting your hand on a flamethrower. The opposition is so extreme and so frightening that eventually everyone is asking you to stop.
My feeling is that I cant, because its too important. Its too important to the women in my life and its too important to me.
Im now in a position where I can now answer the question honestly of, if you were around the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, or whatever it happened to be, would you be one of the people who said, “No, this is wrong”, despite being opposed? I feel happy in myself that Ive been one of the people standing up and saying “no, this is wrong”, despite everybody telling me not to do it.
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The writer – who also wrote Black Books and The IT Crowd – continued: The thing I can easily see happening, because Ive had experience with these type of people already, is someone in a changing room, a man walks in, absolutely no indication that hes a woman in any way.
The woman challenges it, the man says, “No, Im sorry, Im a woman, this is my female beard, this is my female penis, and youre guilty of hate speech”. If you dont think thats going to happen, I dont know what world youre living in, because its already happened.
When contacted by Metro.co.uk, Linehan said: Anyone who listened to the interview knows I was talking about the importance of doing the right thing even when its not easy.
Saying that he is curious as to why his comments are a bigger news story than an argument with LGBTQIA+ campaigner Dr Adrian Harrop, he continued: Anyone who listened to the interview knows I was talking about the importance of doing the right thing even when its not easy.
Elsewhere in the interview, Linehan referred to the cyclist Rachel McKinnon, who identifies as a trans woman, as a man and he.
He also said: Fetishists, conmen, and simply abusive misogynists… are basically using the whole discussion as cover.
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I would say this is the most successful front in the war on women that Ive ever seen.
Linehans comments on the show have caused outrage on social media, with writer Shon Faye tweeting: I mean the actual 1930s Nazis destroyed the worlds first trans clinic and arrested all of its patients and modern neo-Nazis also fucking hate trans people so great not remotely insensitive comparison.
Another person wrote: My family used to love The IT Crowd. We truly believed the awful trans episode was just dated transphobia & that surely the creator didnt feel that way today. We were kind of right. He now compares my family members fighting for acceptance to… nazis.
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