Netflix Employees Walkout Over Transphobic Remarks in the New Dave Chappelle Special, “The Closer” [VIDEO]

Netflix’s trans employees and allies walked out today after the company released, and heavily promoted a Dave Chappelle special that is being called transphobic. This walkout is also accompanied by a list of demands from Netflix employees who are deeply unsatisfied with the current state of the company. These demands include increased investment in projects led by trans artists, a commitment to more diverse hiring practices, and disclaimers for transphobic content on the platform. (The group’s demands do not include the removal of Chappelle special.)

The event attracted some high-profile talent, including “Transparent” creator Joey Soloway, who argued that Chappelle’s jokes crossed a line.

“The line is simple: stop making things worse,” Soloway added. Soloway also called on Netflix to appoint a trans person to the board “this fucking week.”

Employee demands around content funding come from this reality. “As it stands, trans people are becoming more visible without becoming proportionately less derided. Trans stories, and their normalization, fulfills both functions. They humanize us and make us so visible that we become, to borrow a phrase from Disco Elysium, another part of the “great see-through world.”