On January 18th, Youtuber and Gamer Harry Brewis (better known by his screen name HBomberGuy) started playing Donkey Kong to raise money for for transgender charity Mermaids UK.
He said that he intended to complete Donkey Kong 64 to help transgender people, and said that he picked Mermaids because of opposition they received after a donation from the National Lottery.
“I chose to support [Mermaids] because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion around this issue to be woefully misinformed,” he said. “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.”
He also addressed transphobe Graham Linehan, saying “Well done, Graham… now, tons of people know about Mermaids, and support them just to spite you!”
Graham Linehan, a cis straight man who used to write the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, now devotes much of his time to attacking the trans community online, and galvanised an angry response to the Lottery’s donation to the charity.
The stream lasted over 57 hours and racked up almost 800,000 views. Harry invited people to visit the online stream, to make donations and have a chat. Over the weekend, his visitors have included journalist Owen Jones, whistleblower Chelsea Manning and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Independent posted a Facebook stream to the latter earlier this morning;
Harry raised more than $100,000 dollars for Mermaids UK.
“We can’t believe it!!!” tweeted Mermaids “@Hbomberguy has just raised $100,000 for Mermaids by playing Donkey Kong from start to finish live online.”
