Hbomberguy's Donkey Kong 64 Trans Charity Marathon Stream

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About

Hbomberguy's Donkey Kong 64 Trans Charity Marathon Stream, also known as the #ThanksGraham Charity Stream, was a charity livestream started by YouTuber Hbomberguy in support of Mermaids, a UK-based charity organization focused on providing services for transgender youth and their parents. During the livestream, he completed a 101% completion run of Donkey Kong 64 over the course of 57 hours, raising over $340,000 for the charity. The stream attracted notable guests such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Grant Kirkhope, Jim Sterling and Chelsea Manning.

Background

On August 31st, 2018, YouTuber Hbomberguy posted a video about speedrunning and the speedrunning community. After discussing a streamer who played Donkey Kong 64 to 101% completion, he stated that he would stream himself beating the game to 101% completion rate no matter how long it took. At the time, he did not specify the date (shown below).

In mid-December of 2018, it was reported that the National Lottery would give a £500,000 grant to the UK charity organization Mermaids, which provides services to transgender youth and their parents along with campaigning for recognition of gender dysphoria among professionals.^[1] The National Lottery is the UK-run state lottery, which also provides grants for good causes, with distribution handled by the Big Lottery Fund public body. However, the grant was put under review due to a campaign held by anti-trans activists, with the most notable voice coming from comedian and writer Graham Linehan. Linehan, known for creating TV shows such as Father Ted and The IT Crowd, has also been known for his overt transphobic stances.^[12]^[13]^[14] On December 16th, Linehan posted on the parenting forum Mumsnet, urging other users to email the CEO of the Big Lottery Fund with their complaints on the grant. On December 17th, the Big Lottery Fund released a statement saying they would review the grant, which was met with both disappointment and condemnation among users online.^[2]

Developments

On January 14th, 2019, YouTuber Hbomberguy uploaded a video (shown below the quote) announcing the date of livestream, citing Grant Linehan's Mumsnet campaign as inspiration for choosing the Mermaids charity, stating:

“I chose to support this charity because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussions surrounding this issue in my country, especially in its tabloids, to be woefully misinformed, and 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 important issue. I chose Mermaids in specific because when they were designated some funding by the National Lottery, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer who did some work on a good show, uh…20 years ago, who happens to be a very normal man who’s just very angry about trans people all day nowadays, went on Mumsnet and told them to email a lady from the National Lottery en masse and now the funding is under review. So, well done Graham! You have a massive audience and the power to choose to fight for progress in all the many forms we need in the world right now, and you used it to make sure some children won’t have access to helpful resources.”

The stream started on January 18th and ran for over 57 hours. Throughout the livestream, notable figures have appeared in support of the charity and cause, ranging from YouTubers such as Jim Sterling, and Lindsay Ellis, musicians such as Grant Kirkhope and Patricia Taxxon, to notable figures such as id Software co-founder and game developer John Romero and Democratic House representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The streamed gained a total of over $343,000 with the stream still up for donations as of January 21st, 2019.

The livestream has received coverage among not just LGBTQ+ blogging sites, but also news sites such as Metro UK,^[3] Newsweek,^[4] and gaming sites such as Kotaku Australia^[5] and TechRaptor.^[6]

Ocasio-Cortez Appearance

Ocasio-Cortez' appearance on the stream drew national attention. On the stream, she declared her support for trans rights, discussed her recent proposal of introducing a 70% marginal tax rate on the very wealthy, and helped Hbomberguy with some Donkey Kong 64 play (clip shown below).

Here’s aoc</a> talking about how Nintendo 64 was the best system. She’s on <a href="https://twitter.com/Twitch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">twitch helping to raise money for trans kids. pic.twitter.com/cJIfUif1mv
— New Super Blood Wolf Moon Bros. U Deluxe (@GenePark) January 20, 2019

The appearance was covered by Polygon,^[7] Splinter,^[8] The Hill,^[9] and others.

Graham Linehan's Response

Linehan spent much of January 20th, the day following the stream, tweeting against Mermaids, alleging they gave untested drugs to children. In one tweet, he made a joke about allegedly "transabled" persons using saws to give themselves disabilities, getting ratio'd (shown below, left). He also tweeted "Let's get those kids on those untested drugs!" in a reply to YouTuber Lindsay Ellis.

Scottish Parliament Acknowledgement

On January 21, 2019, the Scottish Parliament passed a motion congratulating Harris on the money he raised for the Mermaids organization on his charity stream.^[10] They mailed him a framed copy of this motion to him as well.^[11]