The “LGBTQ” tag for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has reportedly disappeared from Netflix show’s information page, according to multiple outlets.
While Netflix did not appear to release an official statement on viewer’s backlash, the category listing has since disappeared from the show’s page since it premiered on Sept. 21, Pink News reported.
Dahmer, produced by Glee‘s Ryan Murphy ,centered around the serial killer portrayed by Evan Peters. The series premiered last week to backlash from viewers frustrated about the show falling under the “LGBTQ” catalogue. Dahmer, who was gay and dabbled with cannibalism, murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991. The serial killer confessed to the murders in 1991 and was sentenced to prison at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. During his sentence Dahmer reportedly devoted himself to Christianity and was baptized by Rev. Roy Ratcliff in the prison’s whirlpool.
📢 Netflix has reportedly accommodated the demands of social media users who recently became enraged after the streaming service giant tagged a biopic about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer as "LGBTQ" content.https://t.co/oE0O7Vmew9
— Lotus Eaters News (@lotuseatersnews) September 27, 2022
Along with criticism over Netflix’s decision to tag the show under “LGBTQ,” viewers also accused the streaming platform of exploiting the killer’s victims including, Eric Perry, who is the cousin of one Dahmer victim. Perry expressed frustration with Netflix for allowing the show to premiere, citing the trauma felt by the family:
“I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show. It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?”
Perry specifically mentioned the show’s reenactment of his cousin Rita Isbell’s court appearance during Dahmer’s trial: “Like recreating my cousin [Rita Isbell] having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD. WIIIIIILD.” Isbell was the sister of 19-year-old Errol Lindsey, who was murdered by Dahmer in 1991.
“Ok, I did not expect that tweet to get this much attention. To answer the main question, no, they don’t notify families when they do this,” Perry continued in a tweet thread. “It’s all public record, so they don’t have to notify (or pay!) anyone. My family found out when everyone else did. So when they say they’re doing this ‘with respect to the victims’ or ‘honoring the dignity of the families’, no one contacts them. My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel.”
“I feel like it fetishizes this whole horrible moment in Milwaukee history. it shouldn’t be looked at it that way, it just feels completely wrong,” said drag performer B.J. Daniels, who worked at former Club 219 in the Walker’s Point neighborhood. He said he would never watch the Netflix series, according to WISN.
Daniels claimed he was approached by one of Dahmer’s victim’s mother during a 1991 Pride Fest saying, “A woman came up to me and we were in drag, so she knew we were drag queens, and she said ‘have you seen my son?’ and she held up a little snapshot. Come to find out this young man she showed me a photo of was one of the victims.”
While serving his prison sentence, Dahmer was murdered by a fellow inmate on Nov. 28, 1994 after surviving a previous murder attempt earlier in July.
