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YouTuber raises $340,000 in charity stream for UK trans youth

Hbomberguy raises $340K for charity playing Donkey Kong 64

Harry Brewis, better known by his online persona Hbomberguy, is a YouTuber known for his biting and often hilarious political commentary, response videos and general weirdness. He’s now known for something even better, raising more than $300,000 to benefit trans folks in the UK by performing a marathon style charity stream of Donkey Kong 64.

Donkey Kong 64 is one of those games that featured full 3D at a time when it probably would have been better served focusing on other areas, although the attention paid off with one of the better platformers on the N64. The 1999 adventure title for the Nintendo 64 followed the tradition of previous games in the franchise by setting an obnoxiously high bar for difficulty, a bar so high that some struggle to complete the game at all.  And just because he wanted to, Hbomberguy was attempting a full 101% run of the platformer. This meant tons of frustration and funny moments as the stream went on.

A variety of online personalities, celebrities, and even political figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the newly-elected Democratic rep for a New York district that’s been making waves by shaking up the established order, showed up to offer support and amplify the message. The entire theme of the event involved a revolving door of various people showing up to support trans rights, which was great to see, even if H.bomberguy had to endure a game like Donkey Kong 64 for it all to go so well.

A ton of recognizable talent and big names within and without the games industry showed up. Guests who called in and declared their support for trans rights included Doom co-creator John Romero, Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer, Night in the Woods creator Scott Benson, Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything, political activist Chelsea Manning, YouTubers such as ContraPoints and Riley J. Dennis, and even the infamous erotica author who goes by their persona of Chuck Tingle?

All of this was in an effort to support UK-based trans rights group and charity, Mermaids. A group who has faced increased pressure from a subset of people after the transphobic rhetoric of Graham Linehan, co-creator of The IT Crowd, kicked up a storm of bigotry and negativity over the last few months.

In his own words, Brewis says, ‘I chose to support [Mermaids] because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion around this issue 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 issue.’

Applying his typical wit and style, Brewis added, ‘I chose Mermaids specifically, because when they were designated some funding via the National Lottery, Graham Linehan, a comedy writer who did some work on a good show 20 years ago, a very normal man who is very angry about trans people all day nowadays, went on Mumsnet and told them to email the National Lottery en masse. Well done, Graham… now, tons of people know about Mermaids, and support them just to spite you!’

All in all, Hbomberguy raised over $340,000 for Mermaids (the figure kept growing at the time of this writing), with the official playtime being 57:48:32.77—the stream ended shortly after, around 3:00 am EST early Monday morning. Serious props to everyone who helped make such an important event a huge success.

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