Life

Trans employee who spoke out against Netflix’s Dave Chappelle special resigns

By Conor Clark

30th November 2021

Two former trans Netflix employees have withdrawn an unfair labour practice charge against the company, with one also choosing to resign.

Terra Field and B. Pagels-Minor previously claimed that Netflix had retaliated against them for organising a company-wide walkout in protest of Chappelle’s special The Closer.

According to NBC News, their lawyer, Laurie Burgess, said: “My clients have resolved their differences with Netflix and will be voluntarily withdrawing their NLRB charge.

Chappelle’s special faced instant backlash for the transphobic remarks it includes, which Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended at the time before admitting that he had “screwed up.”

In retaliation to The Closer and Netflix’s response, LGBTQ+ staff and their allies staged a walkout on 20 October.

“They cancelled J.K. Rowling — my God. [Effectively] she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as shit, they started calling her a TERF,” Chappelle says in the episode.

After making jokes about the bodies of trans women, he goes on to say: “Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth. That is a fact.”

Despite this, Chappelle then claims that he is “not saying that to say trans women aren’t women” and that “people who watch his specials would know that I never had a problem with transgender people”.

Pagels-Minor, who is a Black trans woman, was fired during the organisation of the protest in October, with Netflix stating that she had leaked confidential information – something she firmly denied.

Field, who is also a trans woman, was suspended from her role after allegedly attending a director-level meeting she was not supposed to be at.

However, she was reinstated after Netflix found there to be no ill intent – though in that time Field posted a viral Twitter thread in which she said Chappelle’s special “attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness.”

On 22 November, Field confirmed that she is voluntarily leaving the company.

“This isn’t how I thought things would end, but I’m relieved to have closure,” she said in her resignation letter which she posted on her personal website. “Shortly after B. was fired for something I did not and do not believe they did, I made a decision: sink or swim, I was going to walk side by side with B. as they had for so many of us while they led the Trans* ERG.”

NBC reported that a spokesperson for the streaming giant said the company and employees “have resolved our differences in a way that acknowledges the erosion of trust on both sides and, we hope, enables everyone to move on.”

Netflix would not comment on whether or not they had signed a settlement agreement with the streaming giant.