Dave Chappelle fully addressed the Netflix transgender controversy for the first time

Comedian Dave Chappelle first addressed the transgender controversy at Netflix in full on a video on his Instagram account on Monday, five days after nearly 100 people protested near the streaming company’s headquarters.

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The employee backlash began after Netflix Inc. decided to release Chappelle’s new comedy special, “The Closer,” which critics called a derision of transgender people.

“The press said I was invited to speak to the transgender staff at Netflix and I declined,” Chappell said in the video. “That’s not true. If they had invited me I would have accepted it. Although I’m confused as to what we are talking about… You said you were a safe working person at Netflix Want the atmosphere. Well it seems I am the only one who can’t go to office now.”

“I want everyone in this audience to know that the media frames it as me versus that community, but that’s not the case,” Chappell said. “Don’t blame the LBGTQ community for this nonsense. They have nothing to do with it. It is about corporate interest and what I can and cannot say.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos caused further unrest with an October 11 staff memo in which he acknowledged Chappelle’s provocative language in “The Closer” but said it did not cross the line in inciting violence.

In interviews before the walkout, Sarandos admitted “I screwed up” in the way he spoke to Netflix staff about the special.

In Monday’s video, Chappell said that following the controversy, he began to withdraw from film festivals that had accepted a documentary he made last summer, and that he is now making that documentary available in ten US cities. are doing.

“Thank God for Ted Sarandos and Netflix,” Chappelle said. “He’s the only one who hasn’t canceled me yet.”