Dave Chappelle has once more stoked the fires of outrage from the LGBTQ community by way of his latest Netflix special, The Closer, and the controversy continues to swell. After the streaming giant seemingly sided with Chappelle by suspending a trans employee, other trans staffers are planning a walkout event in protest.
As seen on The Verge, the group will embark upon its walkout on October 20 after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos issued a statement via a company email saying that the company will not be removing Chappelle’s The Closer from its lineup. Further, Sarandos added in a memo, “Our hope is that you can be hugely inspired by entertaining the world, while also living with titles you strongly believe have no place on Netflix. This will not be the last title that causes some of you to wonder if you can still love Netflix. I sincerely hope that you can.”
In response, a member of the trans ERG wrote, “Trans Lives Matter. Trans Rights Matter. And as an organization, Netflix has continually failed to show deep care in our mission to Entertain the World by repeatedly releasing content that harms the Trans community and continually failing to create content that represents and uplifts Trans content. We can and must do better!”
Netflix previously suspended employee Terra Field and two others after they attended a director-level meeting they weren’t slated to be a part of. The company realized that Field’s attendance at the meeting wasn’t borne out of ill intent and has since reinstated them to their position.
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