Anti-trans activist and comedy writer Graham Linehan has taken to social media to post an email allegedly from Australian comedian and drag artist Barry Humphries after the Melbourne International Comedy Festival posted a tribute for the late star.
Humphries, who passed away over the weekend, helped to found the festival, which is one of Australia's largest ticketed cultural events.
However, the late comedian had previously had his name removed from one of the main awards handed out at the festival due to his remarks about transgender people.
READ MORE: Father Ted creator loses TV career and marriage and on anxiety medication over tweets
Despite removing his name from the award in 2019, the festival posted a tribute for the entertainer, who died at the age of 89 on April 22, on Twitter.
The tribute read: "The news of Barry Humphries’ passing in the last 24 hours of the ’23 Fest was momentous.
"From today we re-group and start to plan a fitting tribute to his comic genius and leading role in creating a global platform for Australian comedy."
Linehan, who rose to fame for his work on sitcoms Father Ted, IT Crowd and Black Books as well as writing for shows such as Brass Eye, is now more known for his vocal opposition to trans rights.
Following an episode of The IT Crowd that was labelled transphobic, Linehan turned to anti-transgender activism.
The Dublin native has been handed multiple bans from Twitter for breaking the social media platform's hate speech rules and has previously discussed how he has lost his TV career and marriage and is on anxiety medication over tweets.
Responding to the festival’s tribute, Linehan posted what appears to be a reply from Humphries to an email that had been initially sent by him.
He commented a screenshot of the mail under the tribute from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, alongside the line "This is what @micomfestival did to him", that read: "Thanks for your letter. I’ve been banned by the Melbourne Comedy Festival which Peter Cook and I launched!
"I’ve been attacked and branded fascist and ‘transphobic’ (sic) by the ‘they’ brigade, and accused of racism by people who have never met an Aborigine.
"That actors who have become rich and famous by performing in JKR’s plays and films and then vindictively excoriated her, seems to me a cowardly betrayal.
"Thanks for writing to me and good luck against a powerful and malign foe."
However, the festival’s director Susan Provan told Melbourne’s ABC that removing his name from the award was the "right decision to make" adding that the festival will always "celebrate" his work as a comedian.
She said: "We’ve never cancelled Barry Humphries. There seems to be some misconceptions going on around there. We changed the name of an award, which was the right decision to make when we did that.
"We have celebrated, and continue to celebrate Barry, an incredible comedian, comic artists, who took Australian comedy global.
"We will always celebrate that he was amazing. And we really value his contribution to the comedy festival too."
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