If you have been obsessing over internet drama as of late, there’s one story you may (or may not) have come across. Goongate.
The synopsis is this: an infamous Twitter user called Giggly Goonclown, real name Orion Grant Passmore, was revealed in leaked messages to be a paedophile with multiple text exchanges showing him engaging in illicit sexual activity over Discord. Some of the recipients of these messages were minors, while others engaged in a “trading circle“ where illegal imagery was shared. Most concerning among these revelations is that Orion had mentioned his desire, perhaps even his intent, to sexually abuse his young niece.
While this is alarming by itself, it has come to the attention of a select few that Orion was no small fry; he didn’t act alone.
Here we introduce the second key player in this tale, Jean “Ella“ Hollywood. A former transsexual pornographer and one-time actor on the show Euphoria, Jean was discovered shortly after the initial leaks to have been in contact with Goonclown through his alternate Twitter account Toonsoda. From here it has been revealed that he was also part of this “gooning“ community and had engaged in much the same behaviour as Goonclown himself.
To describe what gooning is I’ll put it in simple terms. It is a internet subculture revolved purely around pornography consumption to the point of total addiction. Members often construct “gooncaves“ where they masterbate for hours at a time and there is a desire among members to consume porn communally, either by masterbating together over voice calls or in person.
A concerning way these people like Orion and Jean attempt to recruit impressionable people that join these activities is to encourage Early Porn Introduction (E.P.I.). This revolves around grooming underage internet users into becoming porn addicts, with a focus on showing them ever more disturbing and extreme pornography as well as soliciting imagery from those they groom.
A dynamic of dominance is created where the groomer makes the groomed do whatever they demand, usually through the threat of blackmail. There have been examples, as from the related and even more infamous Cecefem, of young children cutting the names of their abuser into their skin or being coerced into undergoing hormonal replacement behind the backs of their guardians.
It is no surprise that the gooning community has such an overlap with the terminally online, overtly-sexual trans community. Both Orion and Jean are trans and many testimonials from trans individuals have stated that their exposure to porn was elemental in the “discovery“ of their new identity. For this to fit into the growing narrative of trans grooming that has emerged these last few years, the conclusions are terrifying. How widespread is activity like this? Are children not just being exposed to porn at too young an age, but are they being actively targeted by malicious actors?
As far as the wider LGBTQ+ movement is concerned these people are an anomaly. They are the exception that does not define the majority of trans people, who are just trying to get by in the face of a world that unjustly hates them.
Or so they like to say.
From here the connections more tenuous. On the 6th of August this year, the Twitter account ValidLs published a compilation of the leaks. Included in this was an image. Jean Hollywood was seen with two other notable members of the trans community: Chris Tyson of Mr Beast fame and Jude Howarth aka F1NN5TER, a well-known “femboy“ streamer on Twitch.
Although such a meeting might be innocent, we cannot rely on the benefit of the doubt. These celebrity sex rings reach far and wide. And if such a close associate of Mr Beast, one of the largest channels on Youtube, is linked to such people… then we ought to be very concerned.
Thank you to ValidLs and all those who helped bring this information to light.