High school declines to rename theater after Dave Chappelle due to his ‘transphobia’: Ironically it will instead be called the ‘Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression’

A Washington D.C. high school has declined to rename a theater after its most famous alumnus, comedian Dave Chappelle, who has donated millions of dollars to the predominantly-Black public arts school.

Chappelle’s moniker was to have adorned the Duke Ellington School of the Arts theater back in November; however, the comedian’s Netflix special “The Closer” debuted and included “transphobic” jokes, according to the Los Angeles Blade.

After initially standing firm in Chappelle’s favor, the school delayed the renaming and ultimately Chappelle himself got involved in choosing a name other than his own for the school, which has a large LGBTQ student population.

“[T]he idea that my name will be turned into an instrument of someone else’s perceived oppression is untenable to me,” Chappelle said.

Although he added he didn’t want “any students to see his name on the theater and feel bad,” Chappelle defended “The Closer” from critics, saying they “didn’t understand that they were instruments of oppression” (emphasis added).