Netflix employees protest against Dave Chappelle's transgender comments

About 100 people have protested near Netflix's headquarters against the streaming pioneer's decision to release comedian Dave Chappelle's new special, which they say ridicules transgender people.

Netflix staff members, transgender rights advocates and public officials gathered on a sidewalk outside a Netflix office block away from the company's main 13-storey Sunset Boulevard building in Los Angeles.

Demonstrators held signs proclaiming "Trans Lives Matter" and "Team Trans" and chanted slogans like "What do we want? Accountability," "When do we want it? Now."

Netflix staff were outnumbered by members of the public, but the precise number was not clear. Netflix employees had called for a walkout. 

Joey Soloway, creator of the Emmy-winning comedy Transparent, was among the rally's speakers.

Chappelle's decision to share "his outrage as comedic humiliation in front of thousands of people, and then broadcasting it to hundreds of millions of people is infinitely amplified gender violence", the writer-director said.

Rally organiser Ashlee Marie Preston told The Associated Press that calling out Chappelle for his remarks was not enough. "It was important to shift the focus to the people [who] sign the cheques, because Dave Chappelle doesn't sign cheques. Netflix does," Preston said. "If we have companies like Netflix, who aren't listening to their employees, who are forcing their employees to participate in their own oppression, that's unacceptable."

Netflix ran into a buzz-saw of criticism, not only with the special but in how internal memos responded to employees' concerns, including co-chief executive Ted Sarandos's assertion that "content on screen doesn't directly translate to real-world harm".

In interviews before the protest, Mr Sarandos told The Wall Street Journal he failed to recognise that "a group of our employees was really hurting", and that his comment about the effect of TV on viewers was an oversimplification.

"While we appreciate the acknowledgment of the screw-up, in his own words, we want to actually talk about what that repair looks like," Preston said.

Entertainment publication Deadline reported a former Netflix employee, who was allegedly fired for leaking financial information about the company, also spoke at the rally.

B Pagels-Minor told the publication the leaking of information to the media did not come from them. "I compiled a series of data, I'm a data person, and I shared it with a lot of people internally," Pagels-Minor said. "If they're going to fire me, they're going to have to fire a lot of people."

How an anticipated show became a PR disaster

The issue began after Netflix added The Closer to its service on October 5. It was the last of six Chapelle shows the streaming giant had paid for. There was plenty of criticism about Netflix's decision to add the show to their service, with some of the loudest voices coming from inside the company.

Terra Field — a Netflix senior software engineer who identifies as a transgender woman on her Twitter account — posted a thread, saying the Chappelle special attacked the transgender community "while trying to pit us against other marginalised groups".

Criticism grew stronger after Mr Sarandos sent an email, which has since been published in the media, defending the company's decision to keep the show. "Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean-spirited but our members enjoy it, and it's an important part of our content offering," he wrote.

Mr Sarandos said Chappelle's language did not cross the line into inciting violence.

Mike Bary, a parent to an eight-year-old transgender son, encouraged Chapelle to think about the impact of his jokes. "Yes, there is freedom of speech, but you don't have to be mean when you make jokes. I think Dave Chappelle, a funny person, needs to understand a little more about the jokes he's making and how they can affect people," he said.

Not everyone supported that message.

"We like jokes. We like Dave Chappelle. Comedy is very important to the American experience, the American way of life, free speech, all of it. We're just out here supporting a great comedian," said counter-protester Vito Gesualdi.

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