House star Hugh Laurie said on social media that he supports WNBA star Sophie Cunningham and added that he believes men should not compete against women.
Laurie expressed his opinion during a social media spat with British comedian, writer, producer, and anti-transgender activist Graham Linehan, the latter of who had demanded that Laurie say what he thinks about trans athletes more clearly.
Laurie had posted an August 9 message saying, “Strange this whole broigus should happen in professional basketball, where 99.9% of the world are, effectively, ‘women’. Per Pablo Torre of Sports Illustrated, if you’re an American man between 20 and 40 years of age and 7 feet tall or more, there’s a 17% chance you’re already in the NBA.”
The word “broigus” is a Yiddish word meaning argument, or bitter dispute.
Evidently, Graham Linehan didn’t feel that Laurie was being straightforward enough about his opinion on transgender athletes, and wanted Laurie to elaborate.
Linehan demanded that Laurie come right out and say whether he supports trans athletes or not, and called it “cowardly” to “distance yourself” from the question.
In a reply, Laurie left no doubt where he stood, but also bristled over Linehan calling him “cowardly.”
“Firstly, fuck off; secondly no, I don’t believe men should compete against women, I thought I’d made that pretty clear,” he tersely replied.
Lineman then inquired yet again, asking why Laurie was telling him to fuck off, and demanded that Laurie say directly if he supports WNBA player Sophia Cunningham.
Laurie finished the exchange writing, “You started it. ‘Cowardly’ to ‘fuck off’ is the going rate of exchange around here. And yes, I support Sophie Cunningham. And you, some of the time.”
Last year, Linehan was arrested by the UK over the comedian’s “hate speech” in his social media posts.
“In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I am not making this up),” Linehan wrote on his Substack after his arrest last September.
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