A transgender comedian, actress and activist who was referenced in Dave Chappelle’s Sticks & Stones Netflix special has died.
Daphne Dorman, who lived in San Francisco, died by suicide, according to the Office of Transgender Initiatives for the City & County of San Francisco.
In a “hidden extra” of the Netflix special, Chappelle talked about becoming friends with a transgender woman.
Dorman confirmed that she was the person Chappelle was referring to, even changing her Twitter bio to reflect it:
“Yep, I’m the Daphne that Dave Chappelle is talking about in Sticks & Stones,” she wrote, adding “Actress. Activist. Author. Advocate. Amazon.”
Chappelle claimed that Dorman was “laughing the hardest” at the jokes. But not everyone was laughing. Some claimed the comedy was transphobic.
Dorman posted a goodbye message on Facebook on Friday. “I’ve thought about this a lot before this morning. How do you say ‘goodbye’ and ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you’ to all the beautiful souls you know? For the last time.”
Dorman was a software engineer and held at senior position at Vineti, a software automation and analytics company for cell and gene therapies. A crowdfunding page for her memorial has been set up.
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