On Wednesday, trans Netflix employees and their allies took to the streets of Los Angeles, calling on the streaming platform to vastly improve its handling of trans and other LGBTQ2S+ issues.
The Netflix walkout was the latest escalation in the backlash to comedian Dave Chappelle’s comedy special which debuted on the streaming service earlier this month. In the special, Chappelle proclaims he is a proud “TERF” and repeatedly uses harmful language to describe LGBTQ2S+ people and trans women in particular.
The special received a wave of backlash, followed by suspensions and the firing of a Black trans Netflix worker, B. Pagels-Minor, who was organizing the walkout internally and who allegedly leaked internal information to the press. Netflix executives doubled down however, and said there are no plans to remove the special from the streaming service.
The Netflix Trans* Employee Resource Group released a list of demands ahead of Wednesday’s rally. Workers didn’t call on the streaming platform to remove the Chappelle special, but rather boost its support for trans and non-binary creators and introduce content warnings and other forms of harm reduction around potentially hateful content.
“We believe that this company can and must do better in our quest to entertain the world, and that the way forward must include more diverse voices in order to avoid causing more harm,” the workers wrote.
In an emailed statement to media on Wednesday, a Netflix spokesperson acknowledged the walkout, but did not commit to meeting any of the specific demands.
“We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “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.”
Netflix workers walkout on Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, trans workers and allies walked off the job, followed by a rally outside of the Netflix building in L.A. The event was led by trans activist and filmmaker Ashlee Marie Preston, while the Netflix workers who walked out opted to remain silent and didn’t speak to the media.
Several high-profile celebrities came out in support of the rally, both in-person and online. Transparent creator Joey Soloway joined the rally and called on Netflix to hear the workers’ demands, including putting a trans person on their board.
“There’s no both sides here,” Soloway told the L.A. Times. “Trans-exclusionary radical politics means that bodies and gender and sexual identity must always line up as J.K. Rowling thinks they should, [which] means the same thing as saying trans people aren’t real people, that trans people are half a person.”
Elliot Page, who stars in The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, shared a message of support for the walkout and its organizers.
In a social media statement of his own, Schitt’s Creek creator and star Dan Levy called on Netflix to make a safer working environment for trans people.
Matrix director Lilly Wachowski, whose series Sense8 was an early Netflix breakout, called on the platform to consider whose side its are on.
And Dear White People showrunner Jaclyn Moore, who last pledged to not make any more content for the streamer unless things changed, said it was encouraging to hear Netflix say it was listening to the workers, but wants to see action.
Other LGBTQ2S+ celebrity boosters for the walkout included Wanda Sykes…
… comedian Billy Eichner…
… and actor Sara Ramirez, who recorded a video message of support.
Pagels-Minor, who was fired from Netflix last week, also spoke at the rally.
“I didn’t want to be the face of this. I don’t want this to be about me,” they told BuzzFeed. “I want this to be about the commonality of, if we spend time learning and educating ourselves about others, then we’re better. I think that’s the real thing.”
In a blog post this week, Netflix software engineer and former co-vice-president of the Netflix Trans* Employee Resource Group, Terra Field—who was temporarily suspended after criticizing the Chappelle special internally and externally last week—said hers and other Netflix workers’ goal is not to “cancel” Chappelle, but to prompt honest dialogue about improving things for trans people both behind the scenes and on screens at Netflix.
“While others have asked for that (and I certainly wouldn’t be sad to see it go) this is not what I’m asking because at this point, the removal of it from the service would only bring more attention to it and more accusations of whatever the hell ‘cancel culture’ means this week,” she wrote.
“It doesn’t feel good to have been working at the company that put it out there. Especially when we’ve spent years building out the company’s policies and benefits so that it would be a great place for trans people to work. A place can’t be a great place to work if someone has to betray their community to do so.”
Trans Netflix workers are encouraging allies to share their list of demands, and to watch the documentary Disclosure on Netflix as a sign of support.
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