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Donkey Kong 64.jpg

How To Support a Great Charity, Enjoy Video Games & Make a Transphobic Bully Sad at the Same Time

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Streaming | January 21, 2019 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Streaming | January 21, 2019 |


Donkey Kong 64.jpg

Recently, the British charity Mermaids, who support trans kids and their families, received a fund from the National Lottery. In retaliation, writer Graham Linehan, co-creator of Father Ted and a noted transphobe, decided to help lead an opposition the decision, describing the charity as pushing an ‘extreme ideological agenda.’ If you’re familiar with Linehan’s long history of transphobia, this won’t surprise you. Indeed, his Twitter feed has become one of the most virulently transphobic places online, and that’s saying something. In August of last year, Linehan said the anti-trans protestors at London Pride were ‘heroes’. In October, he was issued with a police warning over alleged harassment and divulging of private details against a trans woman who challenged him online. In December, he said, ‘If you were around the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, would you be one of the people who said, ‘This is wrong,’ despite being opposed?’ Yeah, he compared trans rights to Nazism. Graham linehan is a washed up bigoted hack. And now he’s trying to attack a charity that supports trans kids. He lobbied via the blog Mumsnet to have their grant revoked. The campaign was somewhat successful as the Lottery Fund announced they were ‘reconsidering’ the decision to give them the money.

In short, f*ck Graham Linehan.

YouTuber Hbomberguy, one of the funniest and most incisive left-wing voices on the platform, decided that he wanted to do some good while playing the video game he never completed as a kid. He announced via YouTube that he would do a Twitch stream of himself playing Donkey Kong 64, and all proceeds raised would go to Mermaids. In his video, he said:


‘I chose to support [Mermaids] because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion around this issue to be woefully misinformed, and I’d like to do my bit to help support the people who do the hard work of contributing to people’s thinking on an issue. I chose Mermaids specifically, because when they were designated some funding via the National Lottery, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer who did some work on a good show 20 years ago, a very normal man who is very angry about trans people all day nowadays, went on Mumsnet and told them to email the National Lottery en masse […] Well done, Graham… now, tons of people know about Mermaids, and support them just to spite you!’



Over 57 long hours, Hbomberguy, also known as Harry Brewis, raised a staggering $340k! On top of that, he hosted a series of guests, including Chelsea Manning, games designer John Romero, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez herself.

If you too would like to support Mermaids, you can donate to them here.

As for Graham Linehan? He can f*ck right off!



Header Image Source: Nintendo