Welcome to the final article of our 2019 Pride Month Series! Every day for the month of June, we have highlighted a different member of the LGBTQ+ community, including fictional characters, celebrities, and activists alike — the positive voices within the LGBTQ+ community and in mainstream media. And we conclude the series with a doubleheader.
First, we are proud to issue a moving and touching piece from reader Karyl Anne, who asked Nerds and Beyond to publish her For the Love of Chuck essay, which is a tribute to Supernatural‘s Chuck Shurley. Read her work here.
And paired with that essay is our final installment of our series below.
Alright, so maybe Chuck Shurley’s decisions aren’t the greatest. Maybe you don’t like his most recent decision, or maybe you don’t like any of his decisions. Hell, you may not even like him as God, but one thing you can’t argue with is that he is an inclusive God.
We met Chuck Shurley back in season four and thought he was nothing more than an adorable, self-deprecating wannabe writer/prophet of the Lord. As a writer, Chuck had holed himself up in his home and probably hadn’t seen the light of day in a long while. It seemed his only purpose was to write half-decent books about some monster-hunting brothers, and drink himself into oblivion. Most days, he couldn’t even bring himself to actually put on pants.
After his introduction, the neurotic binge drinker popped up on our screens from time to time, telling the Winchester brothers to hoard toilet paper like it’s gold in “The End,” or blathering to a convention audience about losing his virginity and how “she went around telling everybody it didn’t count” in “The Real Ghostbusters.”
But his albeit too brief reappearance in season 10’s “Fan Fiction” caused quite a stir. Speculation amongst the fandom that Chuck Shurley was actually God skyrocketed after that appearance. He finally revealed his true identity the following season: while in a made-to-order bar, Chuck reveals himself as God to Metatron.
This revelation didn’t just change our perception of this character, but it also added an immense amount of power to another revelation that Chuck was about to share.
We never really got to know much about Chuck outside of Sam, Dean, and the impending apocalypse, until he nonchalantly revealed himself to be bisexual by stating that, while he roamed the earth, he had some girlfriends and boyfriends.
As much as we love Supernatural, the show itself has not exactly been a shining example of LGBTQ+ representation. Yes, there have been several queer characters in its history, from Max Banes to fan favorite Charlie Bradbury to, most recently, Claire Novak. But for God Himself, the ultimate being, to be portrayed as bisexual carries a massive weight.
Furthermore, how the Supernatural writers revealed this information is significant as well. Even when it comes to God, His sexuality doesn’t define who He is. He isn’t suddenly a new being; He simply revealed a new piece of information about himself. The show sent the message that someone’s sexuality doesn’t need to be the focal point of their story. The only thing the knowledge of His sexuality lends itself to is how much you know about that person. And Metatron’s reaction to this news — a simple “Oh!” — showed us that.
Thanks to the writers of Supernatural (hi, Robbie Thompson!), God is now and forevermore a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
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Thank you for following our 2019 Pride Month Series. We’ve all enjoyed continuing this project that began last year, and we look forward to revisiting it next year. We hope you have enjoyed the characters, authors, and personalities we picked to showcase in this year’s series.
Previous staff member Emily aptly pointed out in last year’s series that proper media representation for all the letters of the LGBTQ+ community is sorely lacking. Even though a year has passed, there still is inadequate representation across the board for queer folks in general and for people of color. So we strived to focus on artists who deserve more representation, and we’ll continue to do so in subsequent Pride series.
Finally, a special thank you goes out to our staff editor Brianna, who made all of our gorgeous featured images blended with the various pride flags for each article — even while she was enjoying the Supernatural convention in Dallas a few days ago! Thank you, Brianna!
What have been your favorite Pride spotlights? Are there any people or characters you would like to see covered? Let us know in the comments below.