Let's be clear, this very lengthy piece is not a petition to re-make the finale episode, it’s a statement with a collection of signatures to The CW and to the Supernatural show runners so that they can hear from the SPN LGBTQ+/allies/Destiel-shipping/etc. fans, who have been made to feel invisible throughout their on-camera portrayals for 10+ years, but more specifically, episodes 18,19, & 20. We’re writing this because we have concerns about Supernatural's 11/19/2020's series finale that quiet frankly, felt like a slap in the face to us; and if you're not going to see us, we'd like you to hear us.  The 14 days between episodes 18 and the finale have been so hurtful to us that many of us have reached out to various well known LGBTQ+ advocacy groups about SPN’s problematic LGBTQ+ invisibility themes, as it relates to their main male characters throughout the series. Look, it’s 2020 and our community deserves better support and representation on screen than what cowardice networks have given us so far. We thought we were going to be getting that from you recently, but we didn't. That finale felt like the show had as much disdain for their LGBTQ+ fan base as the very many (and very vocal) homophobic fan base SPN has been mostly catering to for 15 years. If you want to know why, please continue reading the lengthy details below, but spoiler alert, it specifically focuses on Dean never even addressing Castiel’s life-altering, homosexual confession of love. Whether Dean was going to reciprocate or not, you guys buried it, and for that reason, you buried us with it. You didn't even care enough about us beyond Castiel's canonical 'bury your gays' trope, to even fully canonize it  (or not) with any kind of response from Dean. It's something he ignored until it didn't matter anymore. Can you think of any fan base you have that may identify with that?

As far as character arcs, there were obvious subversions and character-stunting in what can only be assumed was to avoid addressing a same sex love theme between Dean and Castiel (but more on that later). Our first true concern is not only with the homophobic tone peppered throughout the episode (as well as 10+ years of Dean’s ambiguous and purposefully unaddressed bisexuality-coded themes, and the more obvious homosexual love subtext between Dean and Castiel), but also in the CW’s efforts to promote the show specifically for the last 2 weeks that it ran. SPN & The CW used us, their LGBTQ+ fan base. They lied to us for the sake of profit. Those last 2 weeks' marketing were deliberately misleading us to think that Castiel was coming back after his gay love confession. He didn’t come back, btw, but hey, the ratings went up in that time frame so we guess that’s good enough, no? We were wholeheartedly made to believe that the show that gave us a few decent LGBTQ+ supporting characters, would also be true to the main characters they have so carefully crafted for fifteen years. We wholeheartedly believed our life-changing show that had a decade+ of convention tours would do right by the hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ+ fans it claimed to hold dear. It didn’t come close to serving their LGBTQ+ fan base.  It didn’t care though, and the implementation of ‘gay baiting’ techniques with SPN’s LGBTQ+ audience after episode 18 via both direct and indirect avenues were undoubtedly present. We take issue with that, as no promo or tension-build of a series finale should ever leave any LGBTQ+ fan base suspended for 2 weeks waiting on a gay ship to come. In this case, it clearly had no intention of ever coming, but even if it did come, gay baiting is a cheap, lazy, and immoral use of a marginalized fandom’s loyalty. You don’t get you use our loyalty; you get to be grateful for it.

The CW chose not to recognize the awesome responsibility they have to handle their severely under-served and under-represented (yet still loyal) LGBTQ+ fan base with the same love and support that we always give freely to them and other Networks like them. Make no mistake, it’s not even as if The CW can say they didn’t know this was happening. Immediately following episode 18’s homosexual love-reveal-cliff-hanger, “Destiel” was trending higher globally than even the US election was at some point throughout that 2-week period. SPN and The CW knew gays were being baited within those last 2 weeks, and we’re left wondering where was the CW’s statement attempting to dismantle any unintended gay-baiting after teasing us with episode 18’s gay cliff-hanger and episode 19’s romanticized prank call? Why was Castiel used so much in episode 20’s promo pics if he wasn’t in the episode? Whether they are explicit text or subtextual, homosexual/bisexual themes should not ever be used as bait, it's abusive and harmful. We are going to repeat that sentence: Whether they are textual or subtextual, homosexual/bisexual themes should not ever be used as bait, it's abusive and harmful.  

Telling your global LGBTQ+ fan base that SPN wasn’t going to continue the love story between Dean and Castiel, while also speaking openly against the blatantly obvious gay baiting is arguably the least that The CW and SPN could have done to support us, and no one rose to meet that moment. This idea isn’t without precedent... in late spring/early summer of this year; the CW met a similar moment and put out a purposeful statement against racism, bigotry and intolerance. So why was the CW ok with SPN leaving Castiel’s gay love confession unaddressed? The CW essentially allowed something that was beautiful in one episode to become invisible in the next two episodes, while keeping its LGBTQ+/Destiel fan base baited for Dean to address it. Let’s also not forget that they did it during this time when LGBTQ+ community’s visibility is being threatened. Not to mention, after years of the SPN’s LGBTQ+ fan base undergoing vast amounts of harassment and bullying from within the same fandom at even just a mention of 'Destiel' subtext, or Dean's bisexual-coded subtext, we were finally given a sliver, or a morsel of a half-validation with episode 18’s gay love confession. But then within 14 days we were left feeling sequentially baited, and then ultimately disappointed, underwhelmed, used and finally discarded. Btw, that’s been us since Destiel first started trending years ago, but the difference is that at the end of the 3rd to last episode, you all deigned to throw us a half-a-canonned Destiel 'bone' that we had to hang on to for either 7 or 14 days to know how Dean would respond. That was hurtful, the whole thing stung. It stung even worse when it never came by the end of the last episode too. It felt like homophobia got the better of the CW and SPN and so "better to just ignore it and hope they don't notice, or care." We also noticed that other story lines suffered for it too, but thats another letter.  

Anyway, excellent segue into the homophobic story telling briefly mentioned above. SPN’s queer+ fandom wonders why the CW would allow a story to be told that includes a series of events that throw iconic Dean Winchester so out of his own character that the only logical conclusion for viewers to make is that Castiel coming out to Dean has changed Dean’s relationship with Castiel and left Dean seemingly a forever broken, under-evolved, closeted homophobe that never gets a character arc and chooses to keep his best friend dead after finding out he’s in love with him.

Here’s how we see how that story went:

Episode #18:

1. Dean’s best friend Castiel professes a homosexual (show runners confirmed) love to Dean, which saves Dean’s life.

2. Castiel dies/gets taken away and Dean cries but says nothing back to him.

Next episode, #19:

3. Dean tells Sam and Jack that Castiel died but opts to not discuss the “I love you” part. 

4. Dean gets a prank call from who he thinks is Castiel and he rushes to the door as the same romantic music from last episode plays in the back ground, but it’s not Castiel (this is the ‘in-show’ gay baiting that helps to keep us waiting for that Dean-Cas moment).

5. Jack becomes God, and then completely out of character, Dean chooses to say nothing and NOT ask Jack for Castiel to be brought back.

Next episode,# 20:

6. Sam wants to talk about Castiel and Dean brushes it off with a bad cliché and still doesn’t talk about the gay confession. 

7. Despite Castiel killing himself with a gay love confession, Dean ends up dying like a week later anyway from a rusty nail that completely negates the purpose of Cas dying in the first place.

8. In Heaven, Dean hears that his best friend Castiel is in Heaven with him.

9. Completely out of character, and with no explanation, Dean chooses to not see Castiel while he waits for Sam. Instead, Dean just drives around Heaven for the rest of Sam’s life until Sam returns to him.

10. Even after Sam returns, Dean expresses no desire to see Castiel.

Are we wrong? Why is this story ok to tell? Was it not riddled with gay tropes?

At best, CW could call this an ‘unintended consequence’ of putting focus solely on the brothers’ love, but even still, is that consequence or ‘collateral damage’ ok with The CW’s inclusivity standards? SPN didn’t just employ the “bury your gays” trope, they also gay-baited us for the next two weeks, only for us to realize at the very end that SPN also employed an arguably more egregious gay trope of the ‘gay friend falls in love with straight best friend — Straight best friend doesn’t reciprocate and distances himself, and then dumps friendship— gay best friend is left feeling alone and empty.’

The CW could have had something groundbreaking with an iconic role like Dean Winchester having a well-earned character arc that could have absolutely included Dean having reciprocated romantic feelings for Castiel. Imagine how groundbreaking that could have been for the traumatically underserved and underrepresented LGBTQ+ community? Imagine being a young LGBTQ+ fan in one of the small towns SPN has visited and imagine what it would be like having a bisexual Dean Winchester canonically in their corner. Its not even far off at all, considering the 'disaster bi'subtext that Dean's been riddled with for 15 years. Also, imagine how groundbreaking it would have been for the CW to be brave enough to go there and meet that moment. CW and SPN threw that opportunity away. And for what exactly? -Oh right, Dean’s arc that involves never addressing Castiel’s love confession and finally getting a dog right before dying alone and unchanged. That’s it… got it. By the way, Castiel 'outs' himself so Dean can live, so what does that say about SPN killing Dean just a couple weeks later? This is also such an undercut to the sanctity of  what ‘coming out’ is for a lot of us. It's hard to gauge what's the most disrespectful trope here, 'burying your gays', making Castiel’s coming out not matter by killing Dean anyway, falling for the straight guy who’ll never love you back, or just having Dean completely ignore Castiel and acting like he doesn't matter anymore. It's 2020, shouldn’t the adults in charge who call themselves allies know better?

As already stated, many of us have reached out to various well known LGBTQ+ advocacy groups about this because it’s 2020 and our community deserves better support and representation from shows with a global platform than what cowardice networks have given us so far. Hopefully they follow up on this story because every signature on here is the name of a person who you have wronged for believing that after 15 years, SPN was going to do right by them in this way.

It shouldn't go unnoticed or unrecognized that SPN show runners, cast and crew have, in their own private lives and off-camera, demonstrated a true and honest support for their LGBTQ+ fans, but that’s the easy off-camera stuff. This collection of signatures is about what’s on camera. Its about our representation. It’s about lives outside of the hetero-normative, front and center in real ways. Real ways like not denying it, or refusing it, or making it ambiguous when you realize it’s there by virtue of time and unintentionally evolving on the pages of the script. We can't help but be us 100% of the time and if you call yourselves our ally, then be it even when its difficult; like, on-camera level difficult. 

Given how much attention this has received in the last 2 weeks, what SPN and the CW did to their LGBTQ+ fan base on camera will no doubt attract the attention it deserves and hopefully become the Iconic masterpiece that it is, but also a well known profile in easy LGBTQ+ cowardice, gay baiting, utilization of gay tropes, and subversion of character arcs to avoid any real LGBTQ+ related story telling. Let this iconic show be the example of how not to love your queer fans back. The CW, SPN show runners, and any other gay baiting cast and crew owe their loyal LGBTQ+ and Destiel fan bases some time for once; like plus or minus 15 years or so… We love you still, and also look forward you seeing us next to you, not way off in the back. Perhaps the reboot will meet the moment. Dean still hasn't responded to Castiel.

#CassWaits

Signed, - A group of loyal but wounded and pissed off Wayward Fans. We Love you all, but 'son-of-a-bitch', that finale you gave us was all the wrong kinds of Perdition.