To the showrunners, producers, and executives behind The CW’s Supergirl…

The following petition has been created in hopes of raising your awareness to important issues we, as your audience, feel strongly should be addressed.

FEMALE, POC & LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION

Fans have become increasingly frustrated with what we feel to be the general mistreatment of female, POC and LGBTQ+ characters in recent episodes. Having them does not necessarily mean respecting them. And when your lead heroine, lesbian co-lead (Alex), lesbian women of color (Kelly), and the first ever trans superhero (Nia) are all consistently missing, sidelined or lacking any storylines of depth - often in favor of a greater focus on the development of straight cis male characters like William or Lex - it feels inherently problematic, if not blatantly offensive. Especially when out of the six back ground LGBTQ+ characters to appear on Supergirl, only two were not killed off.

There is a long list of times that the LGBTQ+ characters have been treated badly. For instance  Dansen fans were promised a storyline taking their relationship “to a new-level” after crisis, but we haven’t seen that or really any Dansen scenes at all. Nia and Kelly fans are told (almost weekly) they will get screen time; yet they barely get any. There are even instances of erasure of iconic LGBTQ+ characters, like Ayla Ranzz. She was name dropped as Winn’s wife, yet her major comic romance is with a woman. She made history as one of comics first LGBTQ+ heroes, but that wasn’t even alluded to in her mention.

We can’t change treatment of the past but we can improve treatment for the future. We want Supergirl to get better. Season four showed us that the writers know how to balance great LGBTQ+ stories with plot we just want that again.

CANON SUPERCORP

Through actor chemistry, dialogue, romantic couple parallels (including the iconic Clark/Lois), wardrobe, music choice, and storylines - the show itself has already positioned the pairing of Kara and Lena as the series’ core love story. One that just happens to be between two women. And yet, despite massive global appeal and proven popularity, there is a consistent refusal of the show to directly acknowledge it as such and follow through on what would be a beautiful, groundbreaking and television history-making romantic relationship.

Audiences worldwide have been “shipping” Supercorp since their first moments on screen together. And now, four years later - after what was an undeniably heavily romantically coded fifth season, many find themselves wondering why the show would pass up an opportunity to subvert the Super/Luthor lore, fulfill their viewers’ biggest dream, and make the relationship romantic canon. Audience fatigue and rising frustration, queerbaiting accusations, media call outs and more now permeate the Supergirl fandom, reflecting an overall negative sentiment surrounding the show, which has even lead to a significant loss of ratings.

We love our show. We love this cast. And we truly appreciate the hard work of all involved in the series for the last five years. But we hope you now hear our voices as we implore you to “Dare to Defy” by making Supercorp romantic canon as soon as possible, as well as improving the screen time, exploration and treatment of female, POC and LGBTQ+ characters.

Thank you. El mayarah.