Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings really, really, really does NOT want to talk about that whole Dave Chappelle transphobic comedy special thing that’s been dominating entertainment headlines for the past week and a half.
Appearing on a panel at the Milken Institute Global Summit last night, Hastings said he would only discuss his philanthropic efforts and nothing else.
“All philanthropy today,” he told moderator and CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin after she pressed him about the “elephant in the room.”
Despite Boorstin’s repeated attempts to get him to, at the very least, address what’s been going on, Hastings refused, saying, “It’s a no comment. We are really focused today on what we can do for kids around the country.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
His remarks, or lack thereof, come as the streaming giant faces continued fallout from Chappelle’s show, which has been criticized by GLAAD, the National Black Justice Coalition, and several other civil rights groups for its hateful transphobic content.
Last week, Netflix’s other co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, received heat over a memo he wrote saying that the company has “a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”
Except that 2020 was the most violent year on record for attacks on trans and gender non-conforming people, according to the HRC, with majority of victims being Black and Latinx trans women. So, Chappelle’s incessant jabs at them in his comedy specials do, in fact, cause “real-world harm.”
The company’s PR nightmare was only made worse the next day when three employees, one of whom is trans, were suspended for trying to crash a leadership meeting. Another employee was then fired for allegedly leaking information to Bloomberg.
Now, an employee walkout is scheduled to take place tomorrow outside the company’s headquarters in Hollywood, where they will present a list of demands to leadership. Several LGBTQ celebrities, including Angelica Ross, Jameela Jamil, Colton Haynes, and Jonathan Van Ness, are expected to attend.
“When I’m in philanthropy, I don’t talk about Netflix, or try and promote Netflix, or answer questions on Netflix,” Hastings scolded Boorstin yesterday, adding that he’s “very disciplined about keeping those worlds separate.”
Picking and choosing what he wants to talk about while others are left to deal with the consequences. What a privilege!
Watch Boorstin recount the testy exchange…
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
LumpyPillows
Yeah, when cancel culture vultures come to wallow in the mud, its best to not play.
shaunpaul1234
Wonderful DEAR!! Thts th prblm, these Netflix & Chapelle haters, r STUCK IN TH MUD!!
DarkZephyr
I might catch some hate for saying this, but Netflix has always gone out of their way to be pro-LGBT and LGBT inclusive. The fact that everyone wants to crucify them over the Chapelle special does not sit well with me at all. I am also very worried about how non-LGBT people will start looking at us.
Those LGBT employees that wanted to crash meetings that they weren’t technically allowed to be crashing and got fired for breaking company policy etc…anybody else who did those things would have been fired as well. That’s kind of how it works in real life. Other places may not have hired those LGBT people in the first place.
We come off like we want to police absolutely everything and its going to royally annoy people or just straight up p*ss them off if it isn’t doing so already. Which might not do so well for us in the long run. We shouldn’t be trying to police people like this.
I don’t agree with what Chapelle said, I watched most of the special but found myself having to turn it off. I love my trans siblings and my gay brothers. But that’s what I did. I turned it off. Chapelle can go through life being a transphobic, homophobic douche if he wants, but we don’t have to pay any attention to him. That’s the way it should be.
No rights, good, services, housing, jobs or medical care is being denied to LGBT people in general because his trashy special exists. This mob mentality, I just don’t see this working out so great for us in the end. This actually has me worried.
Rugby8
Agree re: Netflix usual stance….but this?..?
RoughRugger
If I’d spent all last summer marching with BLM, then last week dropped the “n-word” a few times in a FB post, I would 1000% expect to be “crucified” over that post…and deservedly so.
Past actions on the good side of an issue definitely earn you benefit-of-the-doubt & an opportunity to make a mistake right, but are NOT a get-out-of-jail-free card. Netflix & Hastings have both had multiple opportunities to get on the right side of this Chapelle debacle and have passed up the chance every time. I’d say they deserve every bit of the shit being thrown at them from the storm they created for themselves.
Rugby8
How is it that John Gruden is being ostracized and Dave Chapelle’s crap is deemed ok???
Double Standards? Reverse Discrimination???
Kangol2
So you’re defending racist homophobe Jon Gruden? Two wrongs doesn’t make a right!
Kangol2
I watched the Chappelle special and found it mostly unfunny and often repellent. He notes that his beef is with White people and racism but despite mentioning Black gay people a few times he fails to grasp that the majority of trans people being killed in the US (and many other parts of the globe, cf. Brazil) are Black and Latinx, and his contemptuous rants essentially erase them. Also, the fight for US Black Civil Rights and LGBTQ Rights, while different, have often been interlinked, and he erases that as well. It wasn’t like he made one offensive comment about trans or even gay people, he built a special around doing so. When he talks about punching down, he should think about the fact that he got $24 million for this special alone, yet he’s mocking and erasing the pain and suffering of numerous people, including kids, who are hanging on by a social and economic thread. Hastings is being disingenuous. As the CEO of Netflix, he should have some comment about Chappelle’s show, even if it’s boilerplate. As for what non-LGBTQ people think, those who are disposed to hate us will find any reason to, and those who are true allies do grasp what this furor is about.
Fahd
Executive arrogance – can’t even dress appropriately. It appears Netflix executives are as sloppy about their dress as they are about their decisions.
I’m very disappointed in Netflix’s current management, even though they seem to able to marshal ample resources to get numbskulls to shill for them in Queerty’s comments sections.
The Netflix board should make some changes in executive leadership before things worsen even more.
shaunpaul1234
Fahd, wth all due respect, GT OVER URSELF!! There is NOTHING wrong, wth netflx or its board!! Look at all th programs they have had re lbgtq, and characters of such!! I “shill” for anti-BS!! Tht people like u, spout-out!! There was NOTHING OF VIOLENCE STATED by Dave Chapelle or Martha!! Wht u need to do is go to ur SAFESPACE, and not come out,, u cnt handle the real world!!
Fahd
Despite all the dopes, pr hacks and paid spokespeople rebutting away on here, Netflix should realize that they are facing a lot of competition.
The Netflix board should make some important changes in their executive leadership before things get worse.
LumpyPillows
Lol, Fahd, you think we’ve all been commenting here for years all in the hopes that Netflix would run in to trouble years later and pay us to “shill” for them? Or, could it be that most people who actually watched the show did not find it anywhere near as terrible as the lies and misrepresentations of it on line? Yeah, the latter.
Fahd
@Lumpypillows
You’re not paid, you do it for free. You are in the dope, numbskull group. But maybe if you save up your comments and send them to Netflix, they’ll give you a rate.
I didn’t even think Chappelle’s last show was funny. He’s washed up and resorted to using this divisive hate to get attention. Sad!
Netflix made a sloppy, bad decision in putting it up, and it surely won’t age well. In a few years, most people who think it “doesn’t cross the line” will be embarrassed that they thought that way (or they’ll be dead – nothing personal, but ravages of time, etc.)
The Netflix board should replace some of these Netflix executives before things get worse. They are facing increasing competition.
LumpyPillows
You aren’t the sharpest lad, that’s clear. Not finding his show funny is a legitimate opinion. Canceling his career because you don’t agree with what you think he said, but didn’t, is just plain ignorant.
Fahd
I guess I will have to carry on without your approval and his wit.
Ronbo
@Fahid Not everyone has their lives ruined by a comedy special. Maybe you should seek professional help or make a friend. It must be lonely in that tortured tower of yours.
Jim
Doing the right thing is always trumped by money.
LumpyPillows
You didn’t actually watch the show, did you? What does that say about you?
Kangol2
I watched the show. It was tired and pathetic. So that retort holds little value. And I’m Black, gay, have watched most of Dave Chappelle’s comedy, and am calling him out for this pitiful excuse for a final special on Netflix.
LumpyPillows
Kang, you didn’t find him funny. That’s ok. Jim didn’t bother to watch a show he’s dishonestly misrepresenting. Your claim you watched it does not change his crime. If you did watch the show, you’d know what he said was complicated and not easily distilled. If you did watch it, as I did, you’d have to admit it wasn’t hateful, even if I didn’t like parts of it.
Ken A.
Correlation does not imply causation. You subscribe to Netflix, you choose what you want to watch. you don’t want to watch Chappelle, don’t watch him. Trying to correlate his show with violence towards people with no peer reviewed references is the same as saying violent video games cause children to be violent, that has been disproven. There is no correlation between TV shows and real life violence. There are plenty of Trans positive media venues out there and it still hasn’t curbed the violence. Let’s be clear, many of those incidences of Black trans deaths really don’t say it’s because they’re trans usually a drug deal gone wrong, a fight with someone or many other reasons but as far as I read, and I read a lot, not one time did I see trans hate. Of course to bring this fact up usually results in being told to shut up which I won’t. I’ll say it here and I may get flack for what I’m about to say but I don’t give a shit. I am not a trans ally and it’s not because of any insecurity, it is what I witnessed that completely turned me off. It was the many trans people who defended a trans pedophile who raped his own daughter multiple times before he decided to identify as she in prison. I was so disturbed by this that I said forget it. That wasn’t the only reason there were others but that was the cherry on top of a shit sundae. I have read that gays are being attacked for being gay. Oh the word CISSEXISM has replaced TRANSPHOBIA.
RosemarysBaby
Gee, you seem like such a lovely and enlightened human being. Someone who deeply cares about other people. I’ll bet you’re a real joy to be around and that you have swarms of friends and family who adore you. Keep up the good work.
LumpyPillows
Actually, Rose, he’s trying to communicate his thoughts and you are just being a twat…maybe its you that is the nasty person.
BigJohnSF
Absolutely right – it’s ludicrous to think Chapelle’s audience (it’s mostly college-educated white people, isn’t it) goes out and murders Black trangender sex workers after watching his shows. He commits the cardinal sin of not agreeing with the woke opinion about transgenderism. For this sin he must be cancelled. The problem is that the incessant jabs of his transgender haters (which is really what the latest special is about) don’t cause him any harm, either, despite their best efforts. But where we are these days is that if somewhat has a different opinion than you do, you are supposed to call them names.
Major
Ken A. You really should have ended your comment after the third sentence, because the rest of what you wrote makes you look, well, bad. You need to be educated on a number of things, Mr. IReadAlot. In my opinion, spewing hate and misinformation like you are doing is as bad as what the “comedian” did in the Netflix “comedy” special. Stay blessed and highly favored.
DBMC
Feckless, spineless twit.
LumpyPillows
Insipid, worthless comment.
masterwill7
I really don’t know what exactly happened here, but Netflix always ever comes up for LGBTQ series and people normally? Also openly on social media, so why now this attack from us?
LumpyPillows
They didn’t. Go watch the show and see.
Prax07
Screw trans. This “cancel Everything” that doesn’t absolutely unconditionally love and support trans is just sheer stupidity. They shouldn’t even be considered part of the LGB.
LumpyPillows
Well, I would not go down that path.
Mr. Stadnick
I have only seen one performance of Dave Chappelle. It was many years ago in a comedy club. I didn’t find him funny then and I don’t find him funny now. The crowd in the audience where I saw him was almost entirely white college dudes.
LumpyPillows
You’ve only seen one performance years ago and find his work unfunny now. Clairvoyant?
Mr. Stadnick
Lumpy
You seem to put your own spin on things. I didn’t find him funny then why would I suddenly find him funny now? Clairvoyance as you put it could also be I chose not to ever see him again as I just don’t find him funny.
Max
it was fair that Hastings wanted to concentrate on the fundraising effort instead. but also don’t blame the reporter for trying to get an answer on the Chappelle situation… she did exactly what anyone in her position would have tried to do.
LumpyPillows
No crime in asking.
Canadiancub
This whole cancelling this is so stupid. I don’t find him that funny honestly
, but go watch the last part of the show where he talks about his trans friend who killed herself because of the trans woke mob. He’s not transphobic y’all are reaching
LumpyPillows
The haters never bring that part up, do they?
frankcar1965
Good! Do not give in to the Transtopo! They are trying to erase women and gays, putting on lipstick and a dress does not make you a woman. Live your life and shut up, these fake “trans” do a disservice to the people with REAL body dysmorphia who just want to be left alone.
hrnpip
Um, where does the money and platform for that philanthropy come from? They can’t be separated.
Invader7
THankfully I don’t subscribe to Netflix.. Chappelle is tired and so over…