The Proclaimers have hit out at trans-rights activists as “truth-phobic” and defended the controversial Father Ted creator Graham Linehan for his comments on the subject
The ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ Scottish duo, formed of twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid, shared the comment in a new interview with The Times, promoting their new album ‘You May Offend’.
The brothers shared their disagreement about the Gender Recognition Reform bill passed in Scotland in 2022 by the Scottish National Party, which made it easier for trans people living there to change their gender legally.
Craig said he believed that the move has “done real damage”, and alleged that it has led to “violent men, including convicted rapists” being sent to women’s prisons.
He added that he is “not transphobic”, but just against how “people have lost their careers” by saying “a woman is an adult human female”. He also said that anyone who tries to do so is “shouted down by 0.5 per cent” who “are male and who think that because they put on a dress, and they put on makeup, that that makes them a female”.
“You have to have freedom of thought.”
Ahead of provocative new album named You May Offend, Craig and Charlie Reid talk about their anger at the SNP, Western warmongering and the imperilment of free speech.
Read the interview with The Proclaimers here
https://t.co/UFFUUzSIJGpic.twitter.com/dzVmgNXv71
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 9, 2026
Craig added: “I’m not transphobic. I’m not against a man identifying as a woman, dressing as a woman. I’m not against any of that. All I’m against is saying that he actually is a woman when he’s not a woman.
“A lot of these folk are basically truth-phobic. They’ll deny the biological reality. Then if you insist on it, they’ll say that you are hurting their feelings. That you’re disrespecting them. But I respect reality and scientific fact, not myth.”
They also added that they wrote their new album in response to how “people are getting scared to say what they think because people are being cancelled”, and went on to defend Father Ted creator Graham Linehan – who has made headlines idue to his anti-transgender views, and being a vocal opponent of concepts including gender self-identification.
“None of his pals stood up for him. I wouldn’t agree with everything Linehan says any more than I would do with JK Rowling [Harry Potter author who has been outspoken against trans rights] but you’ve got the right to stand up for science and logic,” Charlie shared. “And in his case, it’s a tragedy. He lost his career for telling the truth.”
Back in 2022, Linehan was temporarily banned from Twitter for sharing tweets that many considered to be transphobic – including commenting “Men aren’t women tho” in reply to a post by the Women’s Institute, wishing their trans members a happy Pride Month.
In 2018, he was issued with a verbal harassment warning by police after he was involved in an online row with a transgender activist, and in 2022 his comments also led to a Father Ted musical being axed.
In 2023, he went head-to-head with Lambrini Girls after they called him out for his comments on stage. “Start thinking of an excuse why you supported sterilising children,” he shared on Twitter, tagging the band after they called for trans rights at their shows.
Lambrini Girls replied: “If we’re playing the ‘what about the children’ card, here’s a statistic: Su*c*de is the highest among transgender youth amongst any other youth group- because of hate from people like you and the fact they can’t access vital gender affirming surgery. Children are dying.”
Last year, Chris O’Dowd – who played Roy Trenneman in sitcom The IT Crowd, which Linehan created, wrote and directed – also weighed in on the writer’s controversial comments, saying that he wishes the press would discuss Linehan’s views with him more rather than sowing “division”.
“Whether I agree with them or not – they’re not peripheral,” he said. “ I know the press is trying to make loads of money out of all of the division, but don’t actually want to go and talk to him about it and I think that’s a shame.”
‘You May Offend’ is out now, and marks the follow-up to The Proclaimer’s 12th studio album ‘Dentures Out’, which dropped in 2022.
For help, advice or more information about trans rights, visit Mermaids – a UK charity that supports transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse young people and their relatives.
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