There isn’t a day that goes by without some sort of drama befalling the gaming industry. This time it centers around a YouTuber going by the name of Harry “Hbomberguy” Brewis, who decided to step in and help a U.K., trans awareness group named Mermaid to get additional funding via a charity drive after the initial funding from a U.K., lottery seemed like it was going to be halted due to protests from Father Ted writer, Graham Linehan.
According to an article from December 11th, 2018, Pink News reported on Linehan’s resistance to Mermaids receiving grant money to extend their outreach to 45 new groups across the United Kingdom for trans activism affecting young kids, saying…
“When things are wrong, you should be allowed to point out that they’re wrong.
“If you don’t point it out now when they’re affecting other people, you won’t have a chance against it when it happens to you. The thing I can easily see happening, because I’ve had experience with these type of people already, is someone in a changing room, a man walks in, absolutely no indication he’s a woman.
“The woman challenges it, the man says, ‘No, I’m sorry, I’m a woman, this is my female beard, this is my female penis, and you’re guilty of hate speech.’
“If you don’t think that’s going to happen, I don’t know what world you’re living in because it’s already happened.”
Linehan furthered the pushback from Mermaid receiving £500,000 in grant money by getting mothers on board via Mumsnet, many of whom opposed the idea of Mermaids being granted the money. There were also plenty of feminists who were against the group receiving funds to push the agenda as well, with one user, Sunkisses, writing…
“What?! People should pile pressure on the Big Lottery Fund to reverse this decision. They are such a dangerous organisation, and seem determined to trans as many kids as possible, to affirm their own dodgy decisions as parents. Lottery should know they are masquerading as some harmless little support group when they are not”
She linked to an article from The Lancet, which poses a discussion on trans research requiring better science than the current media-led crusade currently taking place.
This led to more pushback against the pushback from feminists and Linehan, with various trans-activists trying to talk down the Conservatives and feminists who didn’t want Mermaid to receive the funding. Some of those who are against the organization receiving funding implored an investigation to take place because the Big Lottery for grant money isn’t supposed to be used for organizations pushing for political agendas. And obviously, trying to encourage young kids to turn trans is a sociopolitical agenda.
On December 17th, 2018, Pink News reported that Big Lottery would investigate after the outcry from Mumsnet made its way around the net.
According to an article published on December 23rd, 2019 by the Daily Mail, they noted that Mermaids did not receive the grant, which furthered the debate about the group receiving funding.
As the conversation over the grant money raged on, YouTuber Harry “Hbomberguy” Brewis, who lives in the U.K., decided to host a charity stream to raise money for Mermaids by playing Donkey Kong.
As reported by Metro.co.uk, the stream lasted for more than 40 hours, and Brewis managed to raise more than $200,000 in charity funds to support Mermaids.
Brewis explained his reasons for the charity drive, saying…
“I chose to support [Mermaids] because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion around this issue to be woefully misinformed, and I’d like to do my bit to help support the people who do the hard work of contributing to people’s thinking on an issue.’
“I chose Mermaids specifically, because when they were designated some funding via the National Lottery, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer who did some work on a good show 20 years ago, a very normal man who is very angry about trans people all day nowadays, went on Mumsnet and told them to email the National Lottery en masse.”
Mermaids was also supported by controversial Liberals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted out Harry “Hbomberguy” Brewis’ Twitch charity stream.
If you’d like to use this as a good moment to support the queer community, there’s a charity twitch stream going on for @Mermaids_Gender: https://t.co/vCvvqRhAwb
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 20, 2019
Doom’s John Romero also joined in on the Twitch chat to offer charity support as well.
The thing is, with support from various Leftists and the media, Mermaids felt compelled to be honest about the very thing that Linehan, some feminists, and many mothers were worried about: the organization is trying to push the Overton window so that young kids will be encouraged to undergo trans surgery.
The organization noted in a tweet on January 20th, 2019 that they were thankful for the support to help “trans kids” and the “trans community”.
We’re overwhelmed by all the love being felt for Mermaids, trans kids and the trans community tonight
Thank you @Hbomberguy for making this happen. You are a hero!#LoveWins pic.twitter.com/epDlVVMCtJ
— Mermaids ♀️ (@Mermaids_Gender) January 21, 2019
Essentially, people supporting the charity are supporting the very thing that Linehan tried to warn people about.
In this case, video games has once again been used as a battleground for the culture war, especially since there doesn’t seem to be much scrutiny from the media about the intentions of Mermaids.
(Thanks for the news tip Keystone)
