Here’s how celebrities reacted to Netflix staff protesting Dave Chappelle’s special

Netflix’s trans staff and their allies staged a company-wide walkout on 20 October in protest of Dave Chappelle’s comedy special.

Two weeks after The Closer debuted on Netflix, members of the Netflix employee resource group Trans* and their allies took a “day of rest”.

This is in response to the transphobic remarks it features, as well as Netflix’s handling of the situation.

“They cancelled J.K. Rowling — my God. [Effectively] she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as shit, they started calling her a TERF,” Chappelle says during the episode.

The term “TERF” references “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” whose views are widely seen as transphobic.

After making jokes about the bodies of trans women, he goes on to say: “Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth. That is a fact.”

Despite this, Chappelle then claims that he is “not saying that to say trans women aren’t women” and that “people who watch his specials would know that I never had a problem with transgender people”.

Now, trans employees and allies have united in protest of Netflix giving Chappelle a platform to voice these views.

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos previously defended the streaming giant’s decision to air the programme.

In a leaked staff memo, he insisted that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm”, emphasising “artistic freedom”.

However, in a later interview with Deadline, Sarandos said he “screwed up the internal communication”.

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