LGBTQ Advocates Slam Dave Chappelle's Netflix Special Over Transphobic Comments

Reporter, HuffPost
Dave Chappelle is being criticized again for cracking transphobic jokes in his latest Netflix comedy special.
The National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights advocacy group, issued a statement Wednesday urging the streaming service to pull the special, titled “The Closer.”
“With 2021 on track to be the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States ― the majority of whom are Black transgender people ― Netflix should know better. Perpetuating transphobia perpetuates violence,” David Johns, the group’s executive director, said in the statement, per CNN. “Netflix should immediately pull The Closer from its platform and directly apologize to the transgender community.”
The group also posted a statement on Instagram:
A post shared by NBJC – Black LGBTQ (@nbjconthemove)
The special, which premiered Tuesday, includes derogatory jokes about the LGBTQ community and defends offensive comments made by “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and rapper DaBaby.
Chappelle and Netflix did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
“They canceled J.K. Rowling — my God,” Chapelle says in his special, according to various reports and clips that can be found online.
He continued:
“Effectually she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as shit, they started calling her a TERF,” Chappelle said, referring to the acronym for “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” whose views about gender are seen as anti-trans.
“I’m team TERF,” he added.
“Gender is a fact,” Chappelle continued. “Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact. Now, I am not saying that to say trans women aren’t women, I am just saying that those pussies that they got … you know what I mean? I’m not saying it’s not pussy, but it’s Beyond Pussy or Impossible Pussy.”
Chappelle’s joke confuses gender and sex. Gender is “your own, internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or as someone outside of that gender binary),” according to GLAAD, while sex typically refers to a person’s biological characteristics.
The 48-year-old comedian also had thoughts on rapper DaBaby, who received widespread criticism over the summer for homophobic comments he made about people living with HIV/AIDS at a Miami concert.
Chappelle noted to the audience that before DaBaby received backlash for these comments, he shot a man “and killed him, in Walmart in North Carolina” and that “nothing bad happened to his career” as a result.
DaBaby, whose legal name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, did fatally shoot a man in a Huntersville, North Carolina, Walmart in 2018. But Kirk insisted that he fired in self-defense. In 2019 he was found guilty of carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to probation, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Chappelle concluded his thoughts on the DaBabby’s homophobic comments by saying:
“In our country, you can shoot and kill a [N-word], but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings.”
The National Black Justice Coalition wasn’t the only LGBTQ group to call out Chappelle’s demeaning comments.
GLAAD also issued a statement pointing out the comedian’s pattern of making these kinds of jokes, saying that “Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities.”
Dave Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities. Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don’t support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes. We agree. https://t.co/yOIyT54819
Jaclyn Moore, executive producer of Netflix’s “Dear White People,” said in a Twitter thread Wednesday that she would no longer work with the company “as long as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content.”
Doing that Pride interview talking about transitioning was me lending my face to promote @Netflix as inclusive. I want to believe that’s true. I cried telling that story. I cried watching Chappelle today too. Different reasons. https://t.co/2naqrzW0G2
Reporter, HuffPost

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