It’s difficult to believe they would have done the same if it was a man and woman kissing, something that frustrated gay comedian Cameron Esposito when she noticed what they’d done. She took to Twitter, saying, ‘Watched CAROL on a plane & they edited it so the main characters never even kiss. Booooooo. Two women kissing is fine for planes.’
Esposito was also keen to note that the same plane was showing a film starring Paul Giamatti, in which he was practicing BDSM.
After a furore began to rise, the film’s screenwriter Phyllis Nagy noted that not all airlines had done this, and that the likes of American Airlines and United Airlines had shown unedited versions of Carol.
Delta has attempted to justify their decision to AfterEllen, releasing a statement saying, “There were two versions of this film that the studio makes available-one that is edited and one that is not edited. The edited version removes two explicit scenes that do not meet our guidelines. The edited version also removes all kissing. The other version is fully non-edited and includes the kissing, but it also includes the explicit scenes. Unfortunately, Delta doesn’t have the rights to edit the movie, or to make the decision to keep some of that content (e.g. kissing). Because of the explicit scenes included in the non-edited version, we chose the edited version. This is consistent with what is available to all airlines.”
Although that sort of sounds logical, it does make you wonder why other airlines allowed the unedited version on their flights.
Watched CAROL on a plane & they edited it so the main characters never even kiss. Booooooo.
Two women kissing is fine for planes.
— Cameron Esposito (@cameronesposito) August 3, 2016
Years ago Delta was known as being the only airline who kicked a gay man off a flight because they thought he’d infect people. My partner always flew Delta, but he never purchased a fare from them again after that incident. Looks like they haven’t changed much,