Comedian Dave Chappelle has faced a wave of criticism from the LGBTQ+ community after joking it was a ‘trans man’ who attacked him onstage.
The 48-year-old was performing at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles, when a man rushed onto the stage and attacked the comedian.
The individual was quickly grabbed by security and footage from the audience shows he took quite a beating from guards.
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Videos of the incident quickly went viral, with the attacker identified as 23-year-old Isaiah Lee, who was taken into custody before being moved to a local hospital for minor injuries.
Lee has been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon - carrying a replica handgun with a blade inside.
However, Chappelle, who has made a series of jokes in the past that have been deemed transphobic, took the opportunity to once again take aim at the trans community.
Once the situation with the stage intruder settled down, the comedian returned to the microphone and joked: “It was a trans man.”
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The joke has received serious backlash on social media, with many criticising Chappelle’s attempt to turn a serious situation into another transphobic joke.
Author and journalist, Ernest Owens said: “If you think I'm going to feel sorry for that transphobe Dave Chappelle, please don't.
“The moment security protects him from the attack, he immediately jokes it was a transgender man (it wasn't) -- but it's clear he will continue to put a target on trans people regardless.”
One Twitter user wrote: “All these people leave out the fact Dave Chappelle joked that it was a ‘trans man’ that ran on stage to beat him when we don’t know who it was.
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“All we know is that things are about to get worse in this country and have been getting worse for trans people and Dave encourages it.”
Another user said: “I do not condone what happened to Dave Chappelle yesterday.
“But the fact that he immediately joked that the man who attacked him was trans demonstrates that he will use any excuse to promote anti-trans sentiment and violence.”
In October last year, LGBTQ advocates asked Netlfix to remove the comedian’s special, The Closer, from the platform as it had featured provocative jokes about transgender women.
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In the special, Chappelle declares he will be joining Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s ‘Team TERF!’ (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist), and also compared DaBaby’s homophobic statements with systemic racism.
Jayden Collins