UK Comedian Arrested Over Anti-Trans Tweets

An acclaimed comedy writer in the UK was arrested and thrown in a jail cell over three tweets that were critical of gender ideology, causing him to become extremely stressed and require hospitalisation.

In a recent Substack post, Graham Linehan recounts his arrest at Heathrow Airport upon returning from the US, a development he attributes to complaints from trans activists over three tweets.

Author JK Rowling shared the news via her X account.

The ordeal began even before Linehan boarded his flight in Arizona. “When I handed over my passport at the gate, the official told me I didn’t have a seat and had to be re-ticketed,” he writes, initially dismissing it as a typical travel mishap. In hindsight, however, he believes it was a sign he’d been “flagged” by authorities, speculating that “Someone, somewhere, probably wearing unconvincing make-up and his sister/wife’s/mum’s underwear, had made a phone call.”

Upon landing at Heathrow, Linehan says he was met by “five armed police officers” who escorted him to a private area and informed him he was under arrest for the tweets. He emphasizes the absurdity of the situation, noting “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.”

The tweets in question included one showing a man in women’s clothing with the caption implying a call to challenge such individuals, and a follow-up referencing a “punch in the bollocks” as a metaphorical point about height differences and self-defense, not literal violence.

Linehan’s initial reaction was one of disbelief and humor: “When I first saw the cops, I actually laughed. I couldn’t help myself. ‘Don’t tell me! You’ve been sent by trans activists,'” he writes.

At the Heathrow police station, Linehan recounts how his belongings were confiscated, including his belt, bag, and devices. He was placed in a “small green-tiled cell with a bunk, a silver toilet in the corner and a message from Crimestoppers on the ceiling next to a concave mirror that was presumably there to make you reflect on your life choices.”

During the police interview, Linehan remarks that the tone became more intense. An officer questioned him about each tweet “with the sort of earnest intensity usually reserved for discussing something serious like… oh, I dunno—crime?”

Linehan defended his posts, explaining that the ‘punch’ tweet was “a serious point made with a joke,” explaining that “Men who enter women’s spaces ARE abusers and they need to be challenged every time.”

The conversation touched on terminology when the officer used “trans people,” prompting Linehan to challenge: “I asked him what he meant by the phrase. ‘People who feel their gender is different than what was assigned at birth.’ I said ‘Assigned at birth? Our sex isn’t assigned.'” He dismissed the officer’s response as “semantics” and accused him of using “activist language,” lamenting that “The damage Stonewall has done to the UK police force will take years to mend.”

Linehan recounts that the stress of the situation took a huge physical toll on him, and when a nurse checked on him, it was discovered that his blood pressure was “over 200—stroke territory,” and he was rushed to A&E for observation.

Linehan attributes this to “The stress of being arrested for jokes,” combined with travel fatigue, and his ongoing eight-year battle against “trans activists working in tandem with police in a dedicated, persistent harassment campaign because I refuse to believe that lesbians have cocks.”

Linehan’s account paints a picture of a surreal clash between free speech, activism, and law enforcement, highlighting his frustration with a system that now prioritises ideological complaints over real crimes.

Is it a coincidence that Linehan was on the world’s most popular podcast just three weeks ago talking about how much of a police state Britain has become?

Linehan has been targeted for cancellation and much worse for years now, since making his views on the gender issue clear:

The Free Speech Union in the UK has announced that it will back Linehan, posting on X:

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.

When @Glinner landed at Heathrow, he was met by five armed police officers, and immediately arrested.

His ‘crime’? Three gender-critical tweets.

As Graham says in his Substack:

“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.”

Graham’s single bail condition is that he does not go on X.