Netflix finds itself on the verge of an employee walkout over its handling of Dave Chappelle‘s latest comedy special, The Closer, which contains both transphobic and homophobic statements by the comedian. Meanwhile, Netflix’s LGBTQ Twitter account has broken its silence on the matter.
On Wednesday evening, the Most Twitter handle, which is “the home of Netflix’s LGBTQ+ storytelling,” fired off a short thread apologizing for not posting as the Chappelle controversy continued to dominate headlines. While the thread offered little in the way of details on conversations that are happening behind the scenes, it promised followers that the queer and trans employees who run the account are reading every comment and citing them during internal discussions:
sorry we haven’t been posting, this week f*cking sucks
To be clear: As the queer and trans people who run this account, you can imagine that the last couple of weeks have been hard. We can’t always control what goes on screen. What we can control is what we create here, and the POV we bring to internal conversations.
We have been reading all of your comments and using them to continue advocating for bigger and better queer representation.
ok you can go back to yelling at us now
To be clear: As the queer and trans people who run this account, you can imagine that the last couple of weeks have been hard. We can’t always control what goes on screen. What we can control is what we create here, and the POV we bring to internal conversations.
— Most (@Most) October 13, 2021
ok you can go back to yelling at us now
— Most (@Most) October 13, 2021
Despite a revolt growing inside his company, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos continues to defend streaming the new Chappelle special, which he defended for a second time amidst news of a walkout. According to Sarandos, he disagrees that content on screen translates to “real-world harm,” so he sees no issue with displaying Chappelle’s anti-trans views.
“Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy – without it causing them to harm others,” he said in a company-wide statement.
(Via Most on Twitter)