In 2011, longtime running soap opera Days of our Lives introduced its first openly gay main character, Sonny Kiriakis played by Freddie Smith.

Immediately, Sonny became a fan favorite, thanks to his good heart and his charming personality. Sonny’s loving relationship with his parents, supercouple Justin and Adrienne Kiriakis, showed the audience how important it was to accept their son or daughter’s sexuality.

When another character of the show, Will Horton, went through the struggle of questioning his sexuality, Sonny was a very supportive friend. He tried to guide him without pressuring him. In 2012, Will eventually came out as gay and he and Sonny started to date. The pairing “WilSon” got very popular really fast. The same-sex relationship portrayed every day on network TV drew a lot of new viewers to the show and also helped a lot of longtime viewers to understand that love is love.

Sonny’s journey on the show continued over the years, revolving mostly around his love for Will. He stood by him when Will got his former girlfriend Gabi pregnant and ultimately invited her and the baby to live with them. Sonny raised his partner’s daughter as his own, proving that gay men can be great parents. In 2014, Sonny asked Will to marry him and the couple tied the knot in the spring. It was the first time ever that two men got married on daytime TV.

One year after this historical event, Will and Sonny are going through a rough patch, like most soap opera couples do (some more often than others). Sonny has a hard time forgiving his husband for cheating on him with Paul, Sonny’s ex-boyfriend who is still in love with him! The love triangle is one the biggest stories on Days our Lives at the moment and there’s a passionate debate between the fans, some are team “WilSon” while others are team “PaulSon”.

Sadly, recent reports indicate that the actor portraying the role of Sonny since 2011, Freddie Smith, has not renewed his contract. Neither Freddie or the show is commenting and the fans have no idea what will happen to the character or the WilSon and PaulSon ships in the next few months. The fact that Days of our Lives tapes its episodes 5 months ahead makes this even more frustrating.

We are loyal fans of Days of our Lives and of the Sonny Kiriakis character and we strongly believe that Sonny is needed on the show and that it would be a colossal mistake to write the character off. The popularity of Sonny and of the WilSon and PaulSon pairings is obvious if you look at social media buzz and online polls. That’s why we are starting a big campaign called “Keep Sonny on Days”.

We urge NBC, Sony, Days of our Lives producers Ken Corday and Greg Meng and head writers Dena Higley and Josh Griffith to keep the character we love on the show or to bring him back if he has already been written off. We want them to convince Freddie Smith to sign another contract or, if that’s impossible, we want them to cast another talented actor to reprise the role.

Please sign the petition.

You can find other ways to help the campaign here: http://keepsonnyondays.tumblr.com/