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A day before Dave Chappelle’s Untitled the documentary is screened at the Hollywood Bowl and the comedian is expected on stage, his new Netflix special The closest generates a growing reaction to remarks about trans and LGBTQ + communities.
“Gender is a fact,” Chappelle says in the special that debuted on the streamer on Oct. 5. “Every human in this room, every human being on earth, had to go through a woman’s legs to be on earth,” he adds. “It’s a fact,” Chappelle continues before launching into an anatomy line that says the genitals of “trans women” are “not quite what they are.”
Stand up for Harry potter Author JK Rowling’s much-criticized tweets in 2020 about the transgender community and exclaiming that he is “Team TERF!” (the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist), Chappelle’s sixth Netflix special also seeks to provide a contrast between rapper DaBaby’s homophobic statements this summer and systemic racism. “In our country, you can shoot and kill an (n-word), but you better not hurt the feelings of a gay man,” the comedian said in reference to a 2018 event the rapper had in a Walmart in North Carolina who saw another man was shot and later died.
After years of using the trans and LGBTQ + communities in Chappelle’s stand-up, GLAAD has today drawn a line in the digital sand.
Dave Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with the ridicule of trans people and other marginalized communities. Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that the public does not support the platform of anti-LGBTQ rants. We agree. https://t.co/yOIyT54819
– GLAAD (@glaad) October 6, 2021
The organization also retweeted a message from the handful of HolyBullies that read, “I would suggest, Mr. Chappelle, that before you start another of your stupid #LGBTQ routines. . . Google some names – Bayard Rustin, Monica Roberts, Barbara Jordan, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde.
Taking Sir Thomas More’s approach, Netflix declined to comment on the controversy. Representatives for Chappelle did not respond to the request for comment.
The Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, David Johns, certainly had something to say. The current leader of the nearly 20-year-old civil rights group founded by Keith Boykin, Mandy Carter, Jasmyne Cannick, Donna Payne, Frank Leon Roberts, Sonya Shields, Roddrick Colvin and Maurice Franklin wants The closest removed from Netflix ASAP:
It is deeply disappointing that Netflix has allowed Dave Chappelle’s lazy and hostile transphobia and homophobia to air on its platform.
With 2021 set 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 more. Perpetuating transphobia perpetuates violence.
Netflix should immediately withdraw The closest from its platform and apologize directly to the transgender community.
Make no mistake about it: Black LGBTQ + and same-sex people exist – and always have been. Tackling oppression is not a zero-sum game, and the ubiquity of white supremacy in the United States is no excuse for homophobia or transphobia.
At the end of The closest, Chappelle, who opens the special with a quip “not to say it’s bad, I say it because it’s funny”, changes direction, in a way. “I don’t tell another joke on you until we’re both sure we’re laughing together,” he said in a personal speech to the Trans and LBGTQ + communities. “Anything I ask of your community – in all humility – please stop hitting my people?” “
The closest is currently fifth on Netflix’s Top 10 USA list.
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