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Netflix has landed in hot water after tagging its series about infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer as "LGBTQ+."
The case was made that Dahmer was allowed to continue killing and in at least one murder directly enabled by law enforcement—police returned a living victim who escaped to Dahmer's custody that he later killed—because of racial bias and homophobia.
Those facets of the crimes are a primary focus of the series.
But most people assumed the LGBTQ+ tag was applied only because Dahmer identified as a gay man.
People on social media expressed outrage at the tag, which they found inappropriate given the grisly and sadistic nature of Dahmer's crimes. Many criticized the series' very existence for the same reasons.
As many noticed, Netflix quietly removed the tag without commenting on it in any way.
But that has done little to quell the ire the tag inspired.
\u201cNetflix has removed a controversial LGBTQ+ tag from their recent series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story following criticism on social media\n\nRead more:\nhttps://t.co/Y3esEVScu6\u201d— PinkNews (@PinkNews) 1664376900
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, created by Ryan Murphy and starring frequent Murphy collaborator Evan Peters in the title role has been controversial right from the start.
Dahmer came to be known as "The Milwaukee Cannibal" for the crimes he committed. Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer murdered at least 17 queer men, many of them people of color and some of whom were underage.
Dahmer has since become one of the most legendary serial killers in history because of the acts of cannibalism and necrophilia he committed against his victims, whom he killed after meeting them for sexual encounters.
Murphy, himself a gay man, chose to focus his series on the victims' lives and delves deep into how systemic racism and homophobia played into a sense of complacency among Milwaukee authorities that contributed to it taking more than a decade to catch Dahmer.
Regardless, the series inspired anger in many and Netflix's tagging the series as LGBTQ+ content seems to have added insult to injury given the negative representation of queer people Dahmer presents.
News of Netflix's tag left many on Twitter slack-jawed.
\u201cLololo that\u2019s hysterical by Netflix. Slapping the LGBTQ tag on Dahmer like \u201cLooking for LGBTQ content?? Well boy do we have the show for you! Where every episode another LGBTQ person gets massacred & eaten!\n\nIt\u2019s like saying Schindler\u2019s List is a family flick for Jewish people\u201d— KFC (@KFC) 1664369120
\u201cIf I need to stay in my lane absolutely tell me but anyone else think it's pretty gross of @netflix to list Dahmer under #LGBTQ, especially when the True Crime tag would have worked?\u201d— Frances *Deadly SoverAuntie* Danger (@Frances *Deadly SoverAuntie* Danger) 1663793270
\u201cimagine clicking on the "LGBTQ" category and this is what you get\u201d— Quinton Reviews\ud83c\udfac (@Quinton Reviews\ud83c\udfac) 1663799752
\u201c@TMZ Why would they even add it to begin with? \ud83d\ude02\u201d— TMZ (@TMZ) 1664390406
\u201c@TMZ They have so few legit titles and they\u2019re gonna add that\u2026 sad.\u201d— TMZ (@TMZ) 1664390406
\u201c@DailyMailUK So, @netflix, don\u2019t forget, when you make a film about a HETEROSEXUAL serial killer, don\u2019t forget to use the #heterosexual tag. Fair is fair.\u201d— Daily Mail U.K. (@Daily Mail U.K.) 1664031434
But others thought removing the tag was the wrong response to criticism.
Homophobia and racial bias were identified as major factors in Dahmer's ability to kill so many gay young men and teens.
All of his victims either identified as homosexual or engaged in homosexual sex work.
\u201cGay white men are uncomfortable with their historical racist violence against Black queers being addressed. Do Black men not exist in the LGBTQ+ community for Netflix to remove the tag? This is their story too.\u201d— Ola Ojewumi (@Ola Ojewumi) 1664344435
\u201cYes, there are gay serial killers. Imagine that. Like, does Dahmer\u2019s penchant for murder make him any less gay? That Netflix caved to pressure (by removing the LGBTQ tag, per the NY Post) is ridiculous given the \u201ccontroversies\u201d it has stood up to in the past.\u201d— Jeff Sneider (@Jeff Sneider) 1664354189
\u201c@them I'm not a fan of the show but, tagging it with LGBTQ+ wasn't an issue for me. It's part of our history (sadly) so it made sense to tag it with that. LGBTQ+ content doesn't mean it has to be something like Love, Simon where it's the whole story or a positive one.\u201d— Them (@Them) 1664298006
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story received criticism from many of Dahmer's victims' families as well as members of the Milwaukee LGBTQ+ community.
They accused Netflix and Murphy of fetishizing and sensationalizing Dahmer's victims' horrific deaths.
A good case can be made for making or not making the series.
It is important to educate on how institutional racial bias and homophobia has real world deadly consequences, but people will need to decide for themselves if a drama series is the best method to do it.