Dem Congressman Ro Khanna Defends UK Anti-Trans Activist Arrested For Calling For Violence Against Trans People
Graham Linehan was arrested after calling for violence against transgender people using the bathroom.
On Tuesday, anti-transgender activist Graham Linehan was arrested after openly calling for violence against transgender people. In the hours following his arrest, far-right personalities rushed to his defense, framing it as an attack on free speech—though few of them were willing to share the violent message itself. By the end of the day, Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna joined the chorus, calling Linehan’s arrest “an offense to anyone who supports free speech” in a post on the twitter platform.
“The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets,” said Graham Linehan about his arrest. He then posted the tweet leading to his arrest, which called for the assault of transgender people using bathrooms:
This is far from the first time Linehan has used his platform to call for violence against transgender people. His social media history is littered with similar threats. In one post, he wrote, “If a man is trespassing in the women’s toilets, it is the duty of other men to turf him out.” In another, he targeted Eddie Izzard, a transgender woman, saying that if he ever saw her in a bathroom, he would “drag her out by her boots.” Other posts echo the same violent message, openly encouraging harassment and assault of transgender people.
While most of the defense of Linehan has come from far-right figures, much of the traditional press has also framed his arrest sympathetically. Headlines have largely focused on the “free speech laws” of the United Kingdom rather than the violent threats that prompted his arrest in the first place. Into that framing stepped Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who on Twitter called the arrest “an offense to anyone who supports free speech.” Khanna went further, comparing Linehan’s detention to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, a gay man persecuted for his homosexuality—a comparison that minimizes both Wilde’s suffering and the danger posed by Linehan’s rhetoric.
Neither Khanna nor much of the media coverage of Linehan’s arrest acknowledged the violent tweets themselves, nor his long history of legal trouble for targeting LGBTQ+ people. In 2025, for example, he was successfully sued for defamation after calling an LGBTQ+ rights campaigner a pedophile. He is also scheduled to appear in court for a separate harassment case involving an 18-year-old transgender activist.
According to the BBC, the activist, Ms. Brooks, a transgender campaigner, reported that Linehan approached her at the Battle of Ideas conference, called her a “groomer,” and asked, “how many kids” she had groomed. Later that day, Brooks said she confronted him outside the venue about why he had labeled her a “domestic terrorist.” During that exchange, Linehan allegedly grabbed her phone and threw it, damaging it. Linehan is set to go on trial today as a result of that exchange.
Linnehan showed up to his court hearing today wearing a sign stating, “There’s no such thing as a transgender child.”
Transgender journalists and public figures condemned Khanna’s defense of Glinner on Thursday. Internet, news, and culture writer Parker Molloy wrote on Bluesky, “This is absolutely disgusting to see from Ro Khanna. Zero percent chance he'd jump in to this to defend the "free speech" to make violent threats against any other group.” Journalist Katelyn Burns wrote, “|The| urgent news matter of the moment involving |Ro Khanna| is that he supports glinner's right to to tell everyone to punch trans women in the genitals.”
Ro Khanna stood by his tweet opposing Glinner’s arrest in a statement to EITM :
“While I condemn unequivocally the tweets themselves, I have always been a staunch First Amendment defender. I stand unapologetically for LGBTQ and trans rights and also for free speech,” said Rep. Khanna.
I'm all for free speech, but there are limitations. Calling for violence against a marginalized community should NEVER be condoned. F U Ro Khanna.
Further evidence that what we are up against will not be defeated if we all just "vote blue".
Again, I don't think Trump cares much about this issue specifically - he's just a political opportunist, and he knows it serves his political and financial interest to exploit a moral panic.
In that regard, he and Khanna and Newsom and many others are actually all on the same team.
This is a well-funded, well-organized, bipartisan effort to destroy us. Party politics will not save us here. We must turn to one another and our allies and construct our own independent legal, medical, and social support networks.