Netflix's trans employee resource group is planning a company-wide walkout Wed., Oct. 20, to protest statements made by co-CEO Ted Sarandos regarding Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special The Closer, according to The Verge.
"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!" wrote a leader of the trans ERG in an internal organizing message.
The event is being planned even as Netflix has reinstated Terra Field and two other employees who were suspended after attending a director-level meeting they were not invited to.
Field had recently posted a viral tweet thread about the Dave Chappelle special, saying it "attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness."
However, on Oct. 8, Sarandos sent an internal email saying the company would not be taking down the special, adding that he didn't believe Chappelle's stand-up crossed a line.
In a statement released earlier this week and that Windy City Times received, GLAAD said, "Netflix has a policy that content 'designed to incite hate or violence' is not allowed on the platform, but we all know that anti-LGBTQ content does exactly that. While Netflix is home to groundbreaking LGBTQ stories, now is the time for Netflix execs to listen to LGBTQ employees, industry leaders, and audiences and commit to living up to their own standards."
According to PinkNews, Chappelle's latest special, which premiered Oct. 5 on Netflix, has the comedian make explicit jokes about trans women's genitals and defend DaBaby and JK Rowling before declaring himself "Team TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminist]."
UPDATE: Netflix has fired a leader of the trans employee resource group who was organizing the Oct. 20 walkout, The Verge reported.
The employee, who is Black and currently pregnant, asked not to be named for fear of online harassment. They have been encouraging trans employees and allies to walk out of work in protest of Netflix's handling of the Dave Chappelle special The Closer.
The employee was terminated on suspicion of leaking metrics to the press related to the Dave Chappelle special. Those metrics—about how much Netflix paid for The Closer and how many people it reached—subsequently ended up in a report on Bloomberg.
Netflix had recently suspended Terra Field, a trans software engineer who posted a viral tweet thread about the controversy, for attending a director-level meeting to which she wasn't invited; Field has since been reinstated.
