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Ricky Gervais faces backlash for tweeting transphobic ‘jokes’

His tweets were prompted by J.K. Rowling’s transphobic tweet.

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Alexandra Samuels

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Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais is under fire after a series of transphobic tweets he said were meant to be a joke. 

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Earlier this week, Gervais responded to a tweet by author J.K. Rowling, who had expressed her support for Maya Forstater. (Rowling was already facing backlash for backing Foraster, who had tweeted that a person cannot change their biological sex.)

Gervais’ rant began after he replied to a tweet by user @JarvisDupont, who tweeted a satirical article from the perspective of a transgender woman upset with Rowling. 

“Those awful biological women can never understand what it must be like for you becoming a lovely lady so late in life,” Gervais tweeted. “They take their girly privileges for granted. Winning at female sports and having their own toilets. Well, enough is enough.”

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One user responded to Gervais writing, “Kindness is magic. Try to remember that.” 

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That prompted the comedian to reply with another transphobic tweet.

“Exactly. We need to protect the rights of women. Not erode them because some men have found a new cunning way to dominate and demonize an entire sex,” he wrote. 

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After a wave of backlash, Gervais wrote that his tweets were intended to be jokes. He also encouraged users to report him to Twitter if they really thought his posts were harmful.

“Twitter has rules in place to guard against that sort of vile bigotry,” Gervais responded to one user. “My account will be closed down and you’ll be proved right and will have saved millions of lives. Why aren’t you doing this?”

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One user, @MariaMariley, asked Gervais to clarify his stance toward the transgender community, because if he was telling a joke, “it fell flat.”

“That’s why it’s free,” Gervais responded. 

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H/T Vulture

 
The Daily Dot