Ashlee Marie Preston, the activist behind the ‘Team Trans’ Netflix walkout over the Dave Chappelle comedy special, has made a series of problematic tweets in the past. Screenshots of tweets she has made in the past have gone viral that reveal a deep-seated hatred towards Asians and homosexuals.
Matt Orfalea, who is a documentary filmmaker and journalist according to his Twitter profile, shared screenshots of her tweets where she can be seen expressing a desire to commit violence against homosexuals.
A series of tweets also show bigotry towards Asian Americans. In one tweet, she claimed that she had broken her phone on the head of an Asian woman. The tweets are littered with abuses of the worst kind.
Ashlee Marie Preston has served as a campaign surrogate for Elizabeth Warren during the latter’s presidential campaign in 2020. It was then that her past tweets had first surfaced, for which she issued an apology. Preston blamed her substance abuse for the tweets.
She had said in October, 2019, “At the height of my meth addiction (8/9 years ago) I made a series of racially insensitive and homophobic tweets. I wasn’t out yet, and was dealing with internalized transphobia while homeless in a neighborhood where I felt culturally inferior. I’d stay up for days on end, tweeting from an impaired conscious—while shadow-boxing (via tweet) with anyone who made me feel less than.”
“Although those tweets were resurfaced as a political play; I take full responsibility for my actions and deeply apologize to those I’ve offended or hurt. I also apologize to those indirectly impacted by these developments. At over 7 1/2 years clean and sober; I’ve learned to make amends when I’m wrong and to take complete accountability for my actions. I didn’t have the education, information, mentorship, or cultural competence I have now. I’m also not strung out on drugs and have a clear heart and mind, today,” she had added.
The tweet appear to have been deleted since then.
The Netflix Walkout over Dave Chappelle comedy special
Netflix employees on Wednesday staged a walkout accusing comedian Dave Chappelle of making “transphobic” comments in his comedy special for the streaming platform. The walkout has received support from celebrities across the board, although ordinary people on social media appear to be firmly behind the comedian.
CEO Ted Sarandos, too, stood by the comedy special and said that it is consistent with the kind of content Netflix seeks to offer to its audience. After his initial memos, where he asserted that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm”, Sarandos claimed to have screwed up his response in an interview later. But even so, he stood by his decision to let the comedy special remain as it is on the platform.
