Brexiteer Darren Grimes, a gay man who really should know better, thinks it’s funny to invalidate gender identities
Right-wing pundit Darren Grimes
Brexiteer Darren Grimes, a gay man who should really know better, has once again invalidated trans and non-binary people’s identities.
Grimes, who founded the Brexit group BeLeave and was later fined £20,000 for electoral spending offences during the EU referendum, has faced backlash for taking yet another cheap shot at trans and non-binary people.
The political commentator, who later had his fine overturned, shared an anti-trans TikTok video that parodies the game show Pointless, with numbers appearing on the screen counting down from 500 to two.
Grimes shared the video and wrote: “When someone asks me how many gender identities there are,” along with a crying-laughing emoji.
Gay Brexiteer Darren Grimes insisted that his views on sex and gender are ‘objective truth’.
Author and editor Jack Powell shared Grimes’ tweet and wrote: “What is this obsession with dragging down already vulnerable people.”
Darren Grimes replied: “Mate, hiding truth and fact from the vulnerable is the real unkindness. There are only two genders, that is an immutable fact.”
Meanwhile, another Twitter user accused him of “s*****g on minorities” and jokingly said Grimes is taking on the “elite and powerful” by attacking trans and non-binary people.
https://twitter.com/darrengrimes_/status/1251883424060768262
When another Twitter user said the tweet was “weak and feeble”, Grimes insisted that his views are “objective truth”.
He later claimed in a follow-up tweet: “It’s incredible to see people who describe themselves as ‘liberal’ tweeting my employer to accuse me of being transphobic for pointing out that sex is an immutable fact and you’re either born male or female.
What is this obsession with dragging down already vulnerable people.
“Shows how so-called ‘liberalism’ is now morally bankrupt. Denying truth!”
When another Twitter user pointed out that Grimes’ original tweet actually referenced gender and not sex – and noted that the two are not the same – Grimes replied: “Go on then, pal. How many genders are there? What trendy label are you giving yourself this week?”
This is not the first time Grimes has expressed anti-trans views.
In a bizarre tweet posted last month, the conservative pundit suggested that some “good” could come out of the coronavirus pandemic, which has since killed more than 160,000 people worldwide.
Grimes said that it would be “good” if people would come out of the global pandemic and see that “an obsession with trendy pansexuality, gender and pronouns is just narcissism”.
The conservative pundit has faced some backlash over the video. His Wikipedia page was subsequently amended by a contributor to say: “Darren is also a well known transphobe and does not understand the difference between sex and gender.”
https://twitter.com/jdedge/status/1252021448799072256?s=21
Gender identity is the ‘innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither’.
Contrary to what Grimes believes, there are actually many gender identities – yes, more than two – and gender does not always line up with the sex a person is assigned at birth.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, gender identity is the “innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves”.
Trans youth charity Mermaids defines gender as being “often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity” and note that it is “largely culturally determined and is assumed from the sex assigned at birth.”
They define gender identity as “an individual’s internal, innate sense of their own gender”.
Trans and non-binary people face significant discrimination for expressing who they are. Research tells us that they also have a significantly higher suicide rate than the general population, and are much more likely to experience mental health issues.
