Hatred of transgender people isn’t welcome in Sacramento. Neither is Dave Chappelle

Transgender Americans face rising hatred and violence in a year that has seen 35 of them murdered. Last month, a gunman entered an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado and started firing, killing five and injuring 19. In that context, the last thing that should be happening in Sacramento is for a notorious transphobe to have a platform at one of the city’s most prominent venues.

Yet that’s exactly what’s happening.

On Monday, the Golden 1 Center will feature comedian Dave Chappelle, giving a powerful platform to a transphobe who has purposefully misgendered transgender people and publicly sided with the famously transphobic author J.K. Rowling.

Opinion

Rowling and others who join her in insisting that transgender women are not “real” women are sometimes called “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” or TERFs. Chappelle, in his Netflix special “The Closer,” perpetuates these beliefs, saying “gender is a fact” and identifying himself as a member of “team TERF.”

“They don’t hate transgender women,” Chappelle said of Rowling and other TERFs. “But they look at trans women the way we Blacks might look at blackface. It offends them. Like ‘Ugh, this bitch is doing an impression of me.’ ”

Chappelle’s bizarre, years-long fascination with and hatred of transgender people has not made the comedian a victim of the “cancel culture” of which so many have made so much. If anything, his transphobic rhetoric, which has been a consistent part of his routine since 2017, has made him more famous.

Since Chappelle made bashing the LGBTQ+ community his brand. He has been the subject of a 2021 documentary; scored his sixth Netflix special; completed a four-night run at the Hollywood Bowl; and hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time.

“If this is what being canceled is, I love it,” Chappelle has said.

Perhaps the success of his transphobia motivated him to expand into other forms of hatred. During his monologue on “Saturday Night Live” last month, Chappelle appeared to sympathize with rapper Kanye West’s recent turn toward virulent anti-Semitism.

“You might go out to Hollywood and start connecting some kind of lines, and you could maybe adopt the illusion that Jews run show business,” Chappelle said. “It’s not a crazy thing to think. But it’s a crazy thing to say out loud.”

Chappelle is a seasoned comic who is strategic about phrasing and delivery — able to imply the controversial thing without actually saying it. He can condemn West’s anti-Semitic remarks while in the same breath giving credence to the false beliefs and stereotypes that fuel hatred of Jews.

It’s the same strategy he uses when he talks about the LGBTQ+ community: What begins as a compliment ends as an insult.

“I don’t hate gay people. I respect the shit out of you — not all of you,” Chappelle says in “The Closer.” “I’m not that fond of these newer gays — too sensitive, too brittle.”

There was a time when Chappelle was a comedian on the cutting edge — someone who could break through noise and get to honest truths about race, politics and culture. He’s not that comedian anymore. Now he punches down, terrorizing vulnerable communities and using his platform to normalize hate.

“Dave Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities,” the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD, wrote on Twitter. “Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don’t support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes. We agree.”

Transphobia doesn’t deserve a place in Sacramento or anywhere else. Chappelle and his hatred aren’t welcome here.