Hawley Grills Netflix CEO for Promoting Transgender Ideology, Secures Commitment to Protect American Jobs

Hawley Grills Netflix CEO for Promoting Transgender Ideology, Secures Commitment to Protect American Jobs

Tuesday, February 03, 2026

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) grilled Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos on Netflix's promotion of transgender ideology in its streaming content. He also secured a commitment from Netflix to protect American jobs in its proposed merger with Warner Bros.

Relating to LGBTQ material on Netflix's platform, Senator Hawley asked,"Why does almost half of your children's program feature this highly controversial, highly sexualized material? That just seems strange to me. That can't possibly reflect the population."

Sarandos answered, "I don't have any idea where that number would come from or what that would be. I don't believe that's been your personal experience, but I can't speak to that."

Senator Hawley cut him off, saying, "What do you mean you don't think it's been my personal experience? You don't think I monitor what my children watch? I'll tell you what my personal experience is since you bring it up: my personal experience is that my three children, I can't let them watch anything on Netflix. I can't let them watch anything on Netflix unless I preview it because I don't have confidence in what is on your platform. I don't know what they're going to encounter. I don't want my kids being pushed an agenda about their sexuality or gender identity when I have not had the opportunity first to discuss it with them and to form them in that."

He continued, "On behalf of parents around the country, it offends me that Netflix is pushing this content at parents in what seems to be a very coordinated, thought-through, planned out agenda in a way that frankly I think undermines parents… It just seems to me that it's a disservice to the parents in this country."

"My concern is that you don't share my values or those of many other American parents and you want the United States government to allow you to become one of the largest, if not the largest, streaming monopolist in the world - I think we ought to be concerned about what content you're promoting," Senator Hawley concluded.

"If this merger goes through, what's your projection about the amount of domestic production, say, two years from now? Is it going to be static? Is it going to decline?"Senator Hawley asked Sarandos.

Sarandos replied, "Most of our production is domestic, and it will continue to increase. We've recently forecast our content, independent of this deal, to grow to $20 billion."

Senator Hawley continued, "Will you commit to increasing domestic United States production and domestic United States production jobs?"

"Senator Hawley, absolutely. It's in our business plan, it's in our longterm operating DNA," answered Sarandos.

"Will you commit to using union labor for all domestic shoots?" asked Senator Hawley. "Will you commit to using it in the future for all domestic shoots if this deal does go through?

"This is the most unionized industry in America, and we use union labor in all our production…You have my commitment," Sarandos said.

Watch the full exchange here.

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