The Dave Chappelle saga continues, this time from an unlikely source. Wilson Cruz, an actor who plays Dr. Hugh Culber on the Paramount Plus show Star Trek: Discovery, recently tweeted his reaction to The Closer — Chappelle’s latest special — and its anti-trans rhetoric.
In short, he’s not happy about Chappelle’s comments on the special, joining a chorus of other voices who say the famous comic’s views could incite violence in the trans community.
The tweet is in response to a story by the Hollywood Reporter about how Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he wouldn’t remove the special. The report also outlines how engineer Terra Field and other employees were recently suspended.
Field wrote a lengthy thread on Twitter about the special and its consequences for the trans community as a whole.
Netflix said that Field and other employees were suspended because they tried to enter a meeting meant for higher-ups in the company, and not in response to the tweets.
Some people on Twitter said that Cruz was glossing over the real reason for their suspension. He replied that he wasn’t.
The crux of Cruz’s argument is that joking about trans people will perpetuate and normalize a cycle of violence that sees people killed.
Cruz is a pioneer of playing gay characters on TV. In the 90s, he played Rickie Vasquez, a gay teen on the MTV show My So-Called Life, along with Jared Leto and Claire Danes.
The role was the first time an openly gay character played an openly gay teen on primetime TV. He also appeared in the hit Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, playing Dennis Vasquez.