TV host Graham Norton has reportedly left Twitter after he recently came under fire following an interview at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. When asked about rising cancel culture, trans rights and JK Rowling, Graham responded to the question raising the point of accountability.
Underlining that transgender adults and young people in particular should be listened to, Norton's comments began to circulate online capturing the negative gaze of JK Rowling. He said: "I'm very aware that, as a bloke on the telly, your voice can be artificially amplified, and once in a blue moon, that can be a good thing, but most of the time, it's just a distraction.
"Talk to trans people, talk to the parents of trans kids, talk to doctors, talk to psychiatrists, to someone who can illuminate in some way. If you want to talk about something, talk about the thing, you don't need to attach a Kardashian or whatever to a subject, the subject should be enough in itself."
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Whilst Graham's stance has been praised for not being one sided, and rather sensible in its delivery, the comments caused outrage online by those who identify as gender critical - most notably, author JK Rowling who is known for her gender critical tweets to her millions of followers.
JK Rowling tweeted Billy Braggs, who shared the original clip of Norton at the festival, and said that his comments about transgender people were that of a "spate of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind rape and death threats to those who dare disagree."
After Rowling's reply, the TV star was hounded with a barrage of abuse. By Monday, Norton's Twitter account has disappeared.
However, many people took to social media to show their support to the Irish celebrity and his comments at the literature festival - including some famous faces. Journalist Owen Jones said: “All Graham Norton did is suggest we should listen to trans people and their parents when discussing trans issues. He specifically made it clear he didn't want to be directly involved in the discussion. For that, he's been hounded off Twitter by anti-trans activists.
"It is trans people who are suffering the horrendous consequences of an anti-trans moral panic stoked by media outlets and politicians who will be damned by history. But anti-trans activists have made it clear that they’ll hound other LGBTQ people, too.”
“Graham Norton’s comments were *so* mild that I was initially critical, thinking he could have done more and he still got hounded off of twitter – for saying people should listen to trans people on trans issues. He attacked no one. He expressed no view," said TV writer Sara Gibbs.
MSP Karen Adam added: "Good on Graham Norton. They try to cancel him so he removed himself from their Twitter tirade. A step better than a mass block. Fantastic boundaries. He said nothing controversial but the response to his comments were unhinged. Says it all. #IStandWithGrahamNorton."
The hashtag #IStandWithGrahamNorton began to trend with countless people taking to Twitter to show solidarity towards the TV host and reality TV judge.
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