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She died 2 months after he mentioned her in a special.
By Megan Hatch — Written on Oct 06, 2021
Dave Chappelle used his recent stand-up special to address years of criticism he's faced for transphobic and anti-LGBTQ "jokes."
At the end of "The Closer," the comedian shared the story of Daphne Dorman, a transgender woman whom he befriended shortly before her suicide in 2019.
Now, Chappelle says he's putting his LGBTQ jokes to rest — albeit after serving up a controversial segment on the LGBTQ community.
Daphne Dorman was a transgender comedian who was a friend of Dave Chappelle, and who was mentioned in his 2019 standup special "Sticks and Stones," before she died.
Who is Daphne Dorman?
Dorman lived in San Francisco and is best known for getting a shoutout by Chapelle in two of his stand-up comedy specials.
Dorman was also a mother and Chappelle revealed that he had established a college-fund for her daughter.
Daphne Dorman was a comedian.
Before she died, she actually opened for Chappelle at one of his shows, writing on Facebook on September 24th, 2019, "Soooo, guess who's opening for Dave Chappelle this Thursday at 10:30 at The Punch Line? It's meeee!"
According to her professional profile, she was a Philadelphia native, who worked for 12 years as a stage and TV actress, including serving as the Director of Operations for The Actors Center of Philadelphia, Director of Information Technology for SCS Global Services in California, and volunteered at the San Francisco LGBT Center.
Daphne Dorman had defended Dave Chappelle from transphobia accusations.
In "The Closer," Chappelle made an arbitrary attempt at defending his history of transphobia by arguing that Dorman loved his jokes.
And — according to her own comments — she did. Chappelle reportedly befriended her after giving her a shoutout in "Sticks and Stones."
Dorman seemed excited about her name being mentioned in Chappelle's special, even updating her Twitter bio which wrote, "Yep, I’m the Daphne that Dave Chappelle is talking about in Sticks and Stones."
She also defended Chappelle on Twitter as well amid ongoing backlash for his "jokes" which were heavily criticized by the trans community.
Dorman took her own life in 2019.
Dorman died by suicide only two months after "Sticks and Stones" was released.
She had received gruesome hate from members of her own trans community who felt hurt by her defense of Chappelle.
Before Dorman died by suicide, she posted on her Facebook page on Friday, October 11th, "To those of you who are mad at me: please forgive me. To those of you who wonder if you failed me: you didn’t. To those of you feel like I failed you: I did and I’m sorry and I hope you’ll remember me in better times and better light.”
Now, Chappelle has said that he intends to retire his LGBTQ jokes in her honor, “until we are both sure that we are laughing together. I’m telling you, it’s done. I’m done talking about it."
Megan Hatch is a writer at YourTango who covers news & entertainment, love & relationships, and internet culture. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.