Netflix has responded to being left out of the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index.
On 27 January, the HRC released their inclusive report that rates the “Best Places to Work” for LGBTQ+ people.
After being on the list for five years, the popular streaming service was notably absent from the latest report.
The decision was made due to Netflix’s handling of Dave Chappelle’s transphobic “comedy” special, The Closer.
“Given the harm experienced by transgender workers at Netflix as a result of the company’s handling of the release of The Closer, HRC has suspended Netflix’s Corporate Equality Index score and will not be rewarding it with a ‘Best Places to Work’ distinction in the 2022 CEI,” the report said.
“HRC and Netflix are having productive conversations about steps the company could take to demonstrate it is acting in a manner consistent with the values of workplace equality and inclusion and to improve trust among their employees and the public.”
Shortly after the report was announced, a spokesperson from Netflix released a statement “respectfully” disagreeing with the findings.
“While we have more work to do, we’ve made real strides on inclusion, including for our LGBTQ+ colleagues. For example, we offer comprehensive transgender and non-binary-inclusive care in our U.S. health plans as well as adoption, surrogacy and parental leave for same-sex couples,” they said.
“And we’ve also worked hard to increase representation on screen. Netflix is the only major entertainment company to have commissioned and published independent research into diversity in our content so that we can better measure our progress.”
While the company has earned perfect scores in previous years, the end of 2021 proved to be a tumultuous time for Netflix and its LGBTQ+ workers.
In October, trans employees and LGBTQ+ allies staged a company-wide walkout in protest of the streamer giving Chappelle a platform.
The lackluster response from the company’s executives also spawned the resignation of multiple trans employees.
Jay Brown, the HRC’s vice president of programs, training and research, gave further insight into the streamer’s removal in a statement to NBC News.
“This is an interesting situation where the policies themselves are really strong,” he said.
“You have trans-inclusive benefits, you have robust nondiscrimination policies. It’s really about how they’re living into their values, and if they can do more.”
Brown also revealed that Netflix’s score was initially going to be deducted by 25 points. But after further deliberation, they decided suspension was “more appropriate”.
In the aforementioned special, Chappelle declared himself a “TERF” after defending Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s transphobic comments.
“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 said.
The term “TERF” references “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” whose views are widely seen as transphobic.
After making “jokes” about the bodies of trans women, he went 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.”
Although the majority of critics panned the special, it has still received nominations at Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America awards.
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