Delta Blasted for Showing 'Rocketman' Without Gay Scenes

It was only days ago that Delta Air Lines got blasted for showing a version of Booksmart on its flights that edited out the very minimal but important same-sex hook up scene. Now, a passenger on one of their flights is claiming Delta is also showing a version of Rocketman that takes out almost all references of Elton John being gay.

“On @Delta today discovered that #Rocketman is stripped of almost every gay reference or scene that @eltonofficial fought to keep in the film’s mainstream release, including a simple chaste kiss,” wrote Entertainment Weekly digital director Shana Krochmal.

She went on to talk about how the airline version of the film “left in a scene of John Reid assaulting Elton but removed any evidence of intimacy between them,” drawing attention to the fact that many censors — including airlines — seem to constantly pass scenes of violence while specifically excluding any scenes of LGBTQ intimacy.

As ThePointsGuy pointed out in the article Krochmal was originally referencing, airlines work with censorship companies to screen films for whatever that company considers “offensive” content and remove it.

This often applies to international flights, where “local laws and local religious sensitivities” are expected to be obeyed, said the VP of one such company, Global Eagle.

But sometimes, as in the cases of Rocketman and Booksmart, those edits go too far, with no regard to where they are being shown.

“Delta has committed to not showing a film at all when an edited version is required but goes beyond omitting explicit material to remove scenes that reflect the diversity of our employees and customers,” a spokesperson for the airline told The Advocate back in 2017.

While that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment, maybe it would be better if we could just get the gay back in our movies, Delta.