D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser won’t take Dave Chappelle’s keys to the city away after transgender remarks led to calls for his cancellation.
Chappelle, a D.C. native whose special The Closer debuted Oct. 5 on Netflix, sparked controversy for comments he made about the transgender community.
“I haven’t considered rescinding the keys to the city, and I regard Dave as a friend and as an artist who is a genius,” Bowser told a reporter Friday.
TRANSGENDER NETFLIX EMPLOYEES PLAN WALKOUT TO PROTEST DAVE CHAPPELLE’S SPECIAL
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) says she has not considered rescinding Dave Chappelle’s key to the city:
“I regard Dave as a friend and as an artist who is a genius.” pic.twitter.com/eAqgigWTJd
— The Recount (@therecount) October 15, 2021
Chappelle in his set called himself a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or “TERF,” backing author J.K. Rowling’s view of gender, and joked that transgender women’s genitalia is “not quite what it is.”
Netflix defended his comments.
“We don’t allow titles [on] Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe ‘The Closer’ crosses that line,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote Monday in a company memo. “Particularly in stand-up comedy, artistic freedom is obviously a very different standard of speech than we allow internally as the goals are different: entertaining people versus maintaining a respectful, productive workplace.”
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Some company employees, however, plan to stage a walkout in support of transgender people.
“Trans Lives Matter. Trans Rights Matter. And as an organization, Netflix has continually failed to show deep care in our mission to Entertain the World by repeatedly releasing content that harms the Trans community and continually failing to create content that represents and uplifts Trans content,” a member of the company’s transgender resource group reportedly said. “We can and must do better!”
