Chappelle special draws critics, boosters to Netflix walkout
Critics and supporters of Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special and its anti-transgender comments gathered outside the company’s offices Wednesday, with ‘Trans lives matter’ and ‘Free speech is a right’ among their competing messages.
People began gathering in advance of a planned walkout by Netflix employees seeking to highlight their objections to Chappelle’s stand-up special The Closer and the company’s handling of it. By noon, the crowd had swelled to more than 100.
Leia Figueroa, a student from Los Angeles, doesn’t work at Netflix but said she wanted to back the walkout. While the streaming service offers positive fare for the LGBTQ community, she said, it’s having it both ways by also offering a show like Chappelle’s that included disparaging comments about trans women.
Bella Cohen, a former journalist, said she was on hand to “support Netflix’s decision not to pull” the special.
Cohen was among about a dozen people who carried placards with messages like ‘Truth is not transphobic’. Opposite them were those carrying signs that included and ‘Transphobia is not Funny’.
Elliot Page, who stars in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy and is transgender, tweeted that he stands with the trans, nonbinary and people of colour working at Netflix who are “fighting for more and better trans stories and a more inclusive workplace”.
Team Trans( asterisk), which identifies itself as supporting “trans people working at Netflix trying to build a better world for our community”. posted what it called a list of “asks” being made of Netflix by trans and nonbinary workers and allies at the company.
They are calling on the company to “repair” its relationships with staff and the audience with changes involving the hiring of trans executives and increased spending on trans and nonbinary creators and projects.
“Harm reduction” is another demand, which according to the list includes acknowledgement of what it called Netflix’s “responsibility for this harm from transphobic content, and in particular harm to the black trans community.”
It also called for disclaimers to flag content that includes “transphobic language, misogyny, homophobia” and hate speech.
In a statement, the media watchdog group GLAAD said it salutes the Netflix’s employees, allies and LGBTQ and black advocates “calling for accountability and change within Netflix and in the entertainment industry as a whole”.