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Delta to Restore LGBTQ Content to 'Booksmart,' 'Rocketman' on Flights

Delta to Restore LGBTQ Content to 'Booksmart,' 'Rocketman' on Flights

Delta to Restore LGBTQ Content to 'Booksmart,' 'Rocketman' on Flights

The censorship drew serious criticism online.

rachelkiley

Delta Air Lines is making good after the revelation that at least two films had queer content removed from the versions shown on domestic flights.

News broke last week that both Booksmart and Rocketman had almost all queer content, from sex scenes to simply the mention of the word “lesbian,” edited out of the films as shown on Delta flights. Booksmart originally featured a same-sex hook up (sans nudity) and kiss between two teen girls, whereas Rocketman, of course, is a biopic about very gay celebrity Elton John.

Delta blamed the omission on a third-party company that allows airlines to choose between the theatrical version of a film and an edited version. In both cases, Delta says they chose the edited version without realizing same-sex content had been removed.

Now, the company says they have requested a special edit of each film that restores anything LGBTQ-related.

“We are immediately putting a new process in place for managing content available through Delta’s in-flight entertainment,” a spokesperson said. They confirmed that LGBTQ content is well within the airline’s guidelines for media, and said they are “working to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

However, while it’s common for LGBTQ content to be removed from international flights, depending on the political, social, and religious status of other countries, this is not the first time Delta has undergone scrutiny for airing films with unnecessary edits.

In 2016, Carol, a film entirely about lesbians, screened on Delta flights with not only the explicit scenes removed, but also missing the kiss between the two women.

The person on Twitter who first drew attention to Booksmart’s unfortunate editing, Michaela Barton, said she watched another film on the same flight that didn’t edit out “hetero sex scenes,” which has led many to believe this censorship has nothing to do with removing explicit content, and plenty to do with considering LGBTQ content innately “mature.”

While it’s commendable Delta is restoring the LGBTQ scenes and mentions to these two specific films, time will tell whether this particular airline gets called out for this particular issue yet again.

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Rachel Kiley

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.