Father Ted creator is banned from Twitter after trans post

THE co-creator of the hit sitcom Father Ted hit out last night after being barred from Twitter over remarks about the transgender lobby.

Graham Linehan tweeted ‘Men aren’t women tho’ after the Women’s Institute wished trans members a happy Pride 2020.

Twitter said his account had been shut down for ‘repeated violations… against hateful conduct’, including use of the word ‘groomer’. Last night Linehan told The Mail on Sunday: ‘They wanted to get rid of me.

‘There was a petition to get me taken down that was full of lies and misrepresentation with tweets taken out of context to make it appear that I was an insane monster. My beliefs are the beliefs of J.K. Rowling and 95 per cent of the public.

‘I would argue that gender ideology is the most important problem facing the Western world and we aren’t allowed to talk honestly – that is really frightening. Imagine being banned for saying men aren’t women.’ He added that he had ‘used the word grooming in relation to the way that gender ideology was grooming individuals’.

The 52-year-old Irish writer, who is also behind The IT Crowd, was accused in 2018 of comparing trans activism to Nazism. And he was given a warning by police in the same year following a Twitter clash with a trans activist.

Linehan, who denies being transphobic, said: ‘Look at what happened to J.K. Rowling… and the most vile abuse directed at her. But Twitter never takes those accounts down.’