Following Dave Chappelle’s recent admission that he “resents” Republicans using his jokes about the trans community to further anti-LGBTQ+ agendas, Azealia Banks has suggested that the comedian is a “chaser.”
Banks shared a post from someone on X, formerly Twitter, addressing Chappelle’s recent comments. The tweet implied that Chappelle didn’t understand the impact his jokes had and how they contributed to the current political landscape.
“Tbh Dave Chappelle IS genuinely a tr*nny chaser,” she wrote in a quote-tweet. “He was sweating my two trans friends for like 4 hours after the box in NYC the bartender actually had to come and ask us to leave.”
A “chaser” refers to someone, typically a cisgender man, who is primarily sexually attracted to trans women. The term is often used pejoratively in the trans community, suggesting such individuals fetishize them.
In a follow-up tweet, also criticizing Chappelle for not realizing the material attracted bigots, Banks wrote, “Black men married to asian women are 100% into girl dick. They love it.”
When a fan questioned Banks if she had trans friends, she confirmed that she does, but also admitted that doesn’t mean she’s not “guilty of transphobia.”
“I’m not gonna be corny like protect the dolls but I be protecting them bitches,” she continued.
In her final post addressing Chappelle’s comments, she replied to a post that accused her of sleeping with the comedian. “So? It’s Dave Chappelle, that’s a black legend OF COURSE I let him hit,” she replied. “I don’t care if he likes tr*annys lol. If he liked men I wouldn’t have done it. But it’s Chappelle, he can have a little girl dick as a treat.”
In 2021, per The Line of Best Fit, Banks called Chappelle “four years late to the transphobia outrage attention grab.” She also alleged that he was “more than obviously attracted to trans women.”
Chappelle has faced criticism for his material about the transgender community ever since his 2019 Netflix special, Sticks & Stones. His comedy received further pushback after the release of his 2021 special, The Closer. In the special, he addressed the criticism of his controversial material and continued to double down while also voicing his opposition towards anti-trans bills, such as bathroom use regulation.
He also described himself as “team TERF,” referring to trans-exclusionary radical feminists such as J.K. Rowling, and then opened up about the death of his trans friend, Daphne Dorman. He revealed that she was supportive of his trans jokes in Sticks & Stones, but she died by suicide in late 2019.
Chappelle revisited the topic in his 2023 special, The Dreamer. “Now if you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m gonna make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show. I’m not fucking with those people anymore. It wasn’t worth the trouble,” Chapelle said. “I ain’t saying shit about trans people. Maybe three or four times tonight, but that is it. Tired of talking about them.”
In an interview with NPR Newsmakers host Michael Martin earlier this month, Chappelle expressed his disappointment with how his material was “weaponized” by Republicans. “I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes,” Chappelle said. “I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing, and that’s not what I was doing.”
