A co-founder of a London-based music production company is to “take a break” from his role after tweeting his support for women’s rights campaigners Graham Linehan and JK Rowling, and opposing the potential pitfalls in gender transition among children, particularly among those diagnosed with autism.
Spitfire Audio, an English technology company that creates sample libraries used for music production, released a statement on Tuesday offering its apologies for recent remarks tweeted in a personal capacity by its co-founder, Christian Henson.
In a now-deleted tweet, Henson posted the following:
“As a parent, I can no longer keep my mouth shut about this. I’m in full support of Glinner and JK Rowling. Please look into this. If you have young children it’s in the post. If you have autistic children it’s probably already on your doormat.”
Henson linked to a YouTube video recently posted by Graham Linehan, aka Glinner, the creator of “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” who claims to have been a victim of cancel culture after his support of women’s rights and concerns over the effect of early transgender intervention for children was met with vociferous opposition from the trans community.
In the video, Linehan encourages viewers to sign a petition showing solidarity with Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, who has received vitriolic hate mail, as well as death and rape threats, as a result of her support for women’s rights, much to the dismay of extremists within the trans community.
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Previously, Linehan has expressed his skepticism towards “early affirmation” of transgender and self-identification as transgender.
“It is dangerous to offer surgery and drug therapy to young teenagers going through puberty who are gender non-conforming,” Linehan is quoting as saying in the Irish Times back in 2019.
“There are lots of gender non-conforming children who may not be trans and may grow up to be gay adults, but who are being told by an extreme, misogynist ideology that they were born in the wrong body, and anyone who disagrees with that diagnosis is a bigot.”
Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson has seemingly paid a price for standing in solidarity with the women’s rights activists, after the company’s CEO Will Evans confirmed on Tuesday that Henson will be “taking a break” from the company as it “reflects on how to move forward.”
“Christian’s tweet has caused hurt amongst our community,” a message from Evans reads. “This hurt is understandably being extended as a reflection on Spitfire Audio, its collaborators and its employees. I’m deeply sorry for that; we’ve worked hard to be a beacon for the industry and have a responsibility to do better.”
The message from Spitfire Audio followed a tirade of abuse hurled at the company for Henson’s views, while others have accused the company of succumbing to a loud minority of activists intent on shutting down any dissenting view on the trans argument that differs from their acceptable perspective.
Henson has since deleted his tweet, and in fact his Twitter account, and it is understood he has not made any further public statement.
