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A transgender Netflix employee who was suspended after tweeting about the Dave Chappelle Netflix special has spoken out.
Terra Field went viral last week when she tweeted in opposition to the stand-up comedian's anti-trans jokes on his latest special for the streaming giant.
The Netflix software engineer took to Twitter on October 7 to criticize Chappelle for his "attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness."
In her thread, which went viral, Field railed against the comedian's use of TERF ideology.
TERF stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists and in The Closer, Chappelle made a number of anti-LGBTQ+ comments and ranted about "cancel culture."
"Promoting TERF ideology (which is what we did by giving it a platform yesterday) directly harms trans people, it is not some neutral act. This is not an argument with two sides. It is an argument with trans people who want to be alive and people who don't want us to be," Field said.
Despite the widespread backlash, Netflix has come out in defense of Chappelle.
I work at @netflix. Yesterday we launched another Chappelle special where he attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness - all while trying to pit us against other marginalized groups. You're going to hear a lot of talk about "offense".
— Terra Field (@RainofTerra) October 7, 2021
We are not offended ?
"Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long-standing deal with him. His last special Sticks & Stones, also controversial, is our most-watched, stickiest and most award-winning stand-up special to date," Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said in a memo to employees, per Variety.
He added: "As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom—even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful."
The software engineer said that trans people's "existence is 'funny' to him—and when we object to his harm, we're 'offended.'"
Field's suspension has been confirmed by Netflix (via Variety), but the company has said she was suspended for a different reason.
"It is absolutely untrue to say that we have suspended any employees for tweeting about this show," a representative said. "Our employees are encouraged to disagree openly and we support their right to do so."
Field and two others were reportedly suspended after they crashed an executive-level meeting addressing concerns about the Chappelle special, uninvited, per Variety.
Before her suspension, Field thanked Sarandos "for leading a company where an engineer can give them (or anyone else) feedback on what they're doing and actually expect a thoughtful response, and for enabling us to make Netflix a great place for trans people to work."
I would like to humbly submit this tweet of mine from last week to @PoorlyAgedStuff: https://t.co/stsKwN1Hxm
— Terra Field (@RainofTerra) October 11, 2021
She has since returned to Twitter to joke that that particular tweet, had aged poorly.
Newsweek has reached out to Netflix for comment.
