Barry Humphries: Paedophilia Endorsemement
Donald Friend was an Australian artist who wrote openly about his paedophilia and sexual abuse of Indonesian children in a collection of posthumously-published diaries.
Relevant news articles:
Our favourite paedophile: Why is Donald Friend still celebrated? | ABC News
Donald Friend sexual abuse victim seeks compensation from National Library | ABC News
As you can see from the cover, the foreword is written by Barry Humphries, who describes Donald as “a brilliant and unique man”.
You can view the entire book at the Internet Archive here. Meanwhile, I have reproduced Barry’s foreword here.
Barry describes Donald as being “surrounded by an army of adoring houseboys” and resembling a “mischievous satyr” who practiced a “benevolent form of paedophilia”.
In case there is any suspicion that Barry was speaking metaphorically, or unaware of what he was endorsing, it should be noted that the book includes Donald Friend describing a 10 year-old boy as an “enchanting wayward lover” who made “passionate and expert love”.
He elaborates: “He goes about the act of love with a charmingly self-possessed grace: gaily, affectionately, and enthusiastically. And in these matters he’s very inventive and not at all sentimental for all the caresses.”
Much as Donald Friend evaded scrutiny or criticism for his self-confessed crimes until after his death, the same can be said for Barry Humphries regarding their association. It seems somewhat ironic therefore that it was for transphobic comments that Barry’s name was stripped from the main award of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2019.
Barry passed away in 2023, whereupon Simon Evans and Adrian Nguyen both published gushing eulogies in The Critic, while Graham Linehan wrote his own on his Substack, which included an email from Barry to Graham confirming his intention to sign a petition ‘In Solidarity With JK Rowling’.
Humphries and the humourless | Simon Evans
The myth of the Larrikin | Adrian Nguyen
‘Good luck against a powerful and malign foe’ | Graham Linehan
Graham praises Barry’s “friendship, wisdom, and poise” and describes him as an “ally to women, friend to the persecuted”.
The Critic regularly gives column inches to Malcolm Clark, Helen Joyce, Bev Jackson, Julie Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Andrew Doyle, Sarah Ditum, Victoria Smith, Harry Miller, Graham Linehan, Jo Bartosch, Maya Forstater and even allows anonymous Twitter doxxer @ripx4nutmeg to write for them under the pseudonym Madison Smith.
Given their relentless platforming of those determined to promote an association between the trans community and paedophilia, it was sickening to see them celebrating Barry Humphries in this way.
I confronted several of these people about this on Twitter. Simon Evans ignored me. Graham Linehan blocked me. James Dreyfus, who had also written proudly about having worked with Barry Humphries, responded only to dismiss the accusation before also blocking me.
Again, Donald Friend explicitly and unambiguously describes raping children in a book which Barry Humphries endorsed with an enthusiastic foreword. The fact that Barry did “acknowledge it by name” seems to contradict any doubt about “exactly how much [he] knew,” and combined with the descriptions of visiting Donald and his “adoring houseboys” in Bali, along with the explicit accounts in the book, it seems downright dishonest of James to dismiss these facts as a “really rather tenuous link” or “quite a leap”.
The only person to react to the association between Barry Humphries and Donald Friend with any degree of seriousness was Ben Sixsmith, online editor of The Critic. He seemed genuinely shocked, and stated an intention to write something on the subject.
Months passed, however, with no further comment. But eventually, a paywalled article appeared on Ben’s private Substack in which he admitted that Donald Friend was indeed a “complete scoundrel”.
Excuses for Evil | Ben Sixsmith
Meanwhile, nearly a year later, The Critic still continue to uncritically platform Barry Humphries’s words when it suits their transphobic purposes. Once again, Graham Linehan is given column inches to air his usual array of lies and propaganda characterising trans people and their allies as child abusers.
Why did the Eye look away? | Graham Linehan
He apparently sees no irony or hypocrisy in rightly condemning Peter Tatchell’s 1997 letter to The Guardian in which he spoke of “the positive nature of some child-adult sexual relationships”, while simultaneously reprinting his email from Barry Humphries, who, as established, wrote an approving foreword in 2010 to a book describing the actual rape of specific children as a “benevolent form of paedophilia”.
The article titles (‘Excuses for Evil’, ‘Why did the Eye look away?’) almost seem to be trolling us at this point. It’s long been established that the gender critical movement are keen on weaponising paedophilia when it can be used to demonise the trans community. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that they are more than willing to overlook the same crimes when it might reflect poorly on their own movement.
