“Schitt’s Creek” is an Emmy-winning show about love and inclusivity, but one TV station is making sure their viewers don’t get to see the full picture.
On Tuesday, the TV show’s co-creator and star Dan Levy took to Twitter to slam Comedy Central India for cutting out a scene where his character, David Rose, and Dustin Milligan’s character Ted share a kiss.
“This is a show about the power of inclusivity. The censorship of gay intimacy is making a harmful statement against that message,” Levy tweeted.
The Canadian actor shared the Comedy Central India video, which shows a scene from the series where the characters are playing spin the bottle. The scene shows a kiss shared between Alexis and her boyfriend Ted, as well as a same-sex kiss between Alexis and Stevie, however the kiss between the two men is cut out.
“Schitt’s Creek,” which just last month swept the Emmy Awards with a record-breaking nine wins, has been lauded for its portrayal of same-sex relationships and inclusivity.
“Fortunately, you can tell so many stories about love,” Levy told TVLine in 2018. “It presents itself in so many different iterations. That’s been what the joy has been for us, to continue to reveal that to these characters.”
Watch: “Schitt’s Creek” cast celebrate Emmy sweep. Story continues below.
Eugene Levy, Dan’s father and one of the show’s stars, added, “This is not a Black, white or brown show; it’s not about gay or straight; it’s not about city/country; it’s not about male/female. People are accepted for who they are, and that’s the good-feeling vibe about ‘Schitt’s Creek.’”
The series, a GLAAD Media Award winner, focuses on Dan Levy’s character, David, who identifies as pansexual and [spoiler alert!] ends up marrying his partner, Patrick.
In a 2015 interview with Flare, Levy opened up about how the show’s creators decided to make David pansexual.
“We wanted to approach it from a way that was very sort of normal, and by that I mean that the family was aware of it, they had been for a while. It wasn’t one of those, ‘Let’s teach a lesson about pansexuality’ episodes. It was just who he was and who his family had accepted him to be,” Levy explained.
Normalizing LGBTQ+ relationships on television was part of the goal of the series, which, in an era where same-sex marriage is currently under threat in the United States, is more important than ever, a point Levy emphasized in his GLAAD award acceptance speech.
“I legitimately thought that I would have to live with this secret — my being gay — for the rest of my life because I didn’t have the security of seeing a lot of people like myself being celebrated in popular culture,” he said.
“Had I not had the love to give me a sense of security, I don’t know if I would have found my way out of the closet, let alone create the opportunity for myself to tell stories on television that have effected some kind of positive change in the world.”
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