Dave Chapelle Tackles Netflix’s Transgender Controversy In New Video

Comedian Dave Chappelle addressed the Netflix transgender controversy in its entirety on Monday for the first time in a video on his Instagram account, five days after about 100 people protested near the streaming company’s headquarters.

The employee backlash began after Netflix Inc decided to release Chappelle’s new comedy special, “The Closer,” which critics say ridicules transgender people.

“It has been said in the press that I was invited to speak to transgender employees on Netflix and I declined,” Chappelle said in the video. “That’s not true. If I had been invited, I would have accepted it. Even though I’m confused about what we’re talking about … You said you want a safe working environment on Netflix. Well, it seems I’m the only one who can’t go anymore to the office “.

“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames this as me against that community, it is not what it is,” said Chappelle. “Don’t blame the LBGTQ community for any of this shit. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I can’t say. ”

Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos further fueled the unrest with an October 11 staff memo in which he acknowledged Chappelle’s provocative language on “The Closer,” but said he did not cross the line to incite violence.

In interviews before the strike, Sarandos acknowledged that “I made a mistake” in the way he spoke to Netflix staff about the special.

In Monday’s video, Chappelle said that after the controversy, he began to be uninvited from film festivals that had accepted a documentary he made last summer, and that he is now making it available in ten American cities.

“Thank goodness for Ted Sarandos and Netflix,” said Chappelle. “He’s the only one who hasn’t canceled me yet.”

(REUTERS)