...but they still find time to reprimand Father Ted writer who called trans activist ‘he’ not ‘she’
THE co-creator of TV’s Father Ted has been given a warning by police following a Twitter clash with a transgender activist.
Stephanie Hayden reported Graham Linehan for ‘transphobia’ after he referred to her as ‘he’ as well as by names she had used before transitioning into a woman.
The 45-year-old lawyer is also suing the writer in the High Court.
Linehan, who was behind Black Books and The IT Crowd, had tweeted calling her ‘Stephanie/Tony/Steven’, references to her former names.
The 50-year-old Irishman added: ‘I don’t respect the pronouns of misogynists, stalkers or harassers, and Tony is all three.’
The claims are rejected by Miss Hayden, who said: ‘I don’t take kindly to a public figure tweeting about me, referring to me as a man and putting my legal name in quotation marks to suggest it’s not valid.’
The row started after Linehan gave his backing to a support group of trans women, including Miss Hayden.
A dispute caused the group to disband and led to bitter tweets between the pair.
Linehan retweeted a post giving her previous names with pictures and she revealed his home address. Miss Hayden made a complaint of transphobia to Norfolk Constabulary, which passed the matter to West Yorkshire Police.
Linehan, who is said to be considering legal action against Miss Hayden, told the BBC: ‘The police phoned me and told me to stay away. I would love to keep Stephanie away from me and my family and I have no intention of speaking to Stephanie.’
He defended referring to Miss Hayden as ‘he’, adding: ‘I will call all of my trans friends ‘she’. I think of them as women, they are respectful and are not misogynists. But I refuse to respect the pronouns of misogynists.’
Miss Hayden, who is pursuing civil proceedings for alleged harassment, defamation and misuse of private information, said: ‘The point I want to get across is this isn’t about free speech, this is about harassment.
‘He is perfectly entitled to say his subjective opinions, but he is not allowed to publish details about me.’
Police can issue verbal harassment warnings to deter individuals from further behaviour. They are not convictions or cautions but appear on enhanced criminal records checks.
Linehan has locked his Twitter account citing abuse and harassment.