Trans employees at Netflix will stage a walkout next week to protest comedian Dave Chapelle’s new Netflix special, The Closer, the Los Angeles Times reports. The walkout is reportedly set to take place on October 20.
The walkout will include members of Netflix’s employee resource group, Trans*, which includes the streaming giant’s trans employees and their allies. The planned walkout follows the suspension of three Netflix employees, who were initially suspended for crashing a director-level meeting to which they were not invited. All three were reinstated following social media outcry.
The walkout will occur a day after Netflix holds a virtual event meant to discuss the impact of Chappelle’s special on the trans community, hosted by trans activist Alok Vaid-Menon.
In the special, Chapelle talks about criticism that came from the LGBTQ community. Chapelle’s special includes a number of derogatory comments about the trans community, and Chapelle says he supports Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling who has come under fire for repeatedly voicing anti-trans sentiments.
Netflix employees reportedly raised concerns about the special before it debuted, Bloomberg reports, but Netflix executives felt it didn’t cross the line.
“Several of you have … asked where we draw the line on hate. We don’t allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in an internal memo. It’s worth noting that Netflix can and has removed content at the request of foreign governments.
Sarandos also said that the company would not take down the special, for which Bloomberg says it spent $24.1 million–more than the entire nine-episode run of the ultra-popular Squid Game. Bloomberg also notes that Chappelle’s previous special, Sticks & Stones, under-performed for the $23.6 million the streamer spent on it.
“Promoting [trans-exclusionary radical feminist] ideology…directly harms trans people, it is not some neutral act,” said Terra Field, one of the suspended and now reinstated employees in a tweet last week. “This all gets brushed off as offense though–because if we’re just ‘too sensitive’ then it’s easy to ignore us.”
