Today, many employees at Netflix are staging a walkout to protest Netflix’s treatment of transgender people surrounding the release of Dave Chappelle’s latest special on Netflix. The Closer has garnered a ton of controversy with everyone from Star Trek actors to the Black National Justice Coalition calling on the company to remove it from their platform. Now, it looks like Elliot Page has picked a side in the “battle” taking place.
Elliot took to Twitter to show his support of the walkouts and his ongoing support for the queer employees at the company, showing solidarity with the workers currently protesting.
After a black, trans, and pregnant employee was fired from Netflix who was helping to organize the walkout, many have turned out online to show support using #NetflixWalkout and No Netflix to help get as many people as possible to stop streaming on the platform today or to cancel their subscriptions entirely until the workers’ demands are met.
Before the walkout, Netflix released a statement that said: “We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content.”
Everything started when Netflix released The Closer, a comedy special by world-famous comedian Dave Chappelle. The show has some jokes aimed at transgender people, and some employees within the company say that type of rhetoric can incite violence in the trans community.
Page disclosed he was transgender in December. He’s since become an important voice in the trans community.
The Closer isn’t the first time in recent memory Netflix has been in hot water over controversial material. A show called Cuties was accused of sexualizing underage girls, and another show called 13 Reasons Why was blamed for glamorizing teen suicide.
Ashlee Marie Preston organized the walkout at Netflix.
“We shouldn’t have to show up quarterly/annually to push back against harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities,” Preston said. “Instead, we aim to use this moment to shift the social ecology around what Netflix leadership deems ethical entertainment.”
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has been trying to walk the difficult line of pleasing everyone in a tough situation. He wrote a memo where he acknowledged that Chappelle’s language was not normal but also said it wasn’t harmful. “We have a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t translate to real-world harm,” he said.
Though he has since walked back his statements and attempted to apologize, it still looks as though the special won’t be removed from the platform. We’ll have to wait and see if the workers staging the walkouts today will have all of their demands met.
