Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2023: Week 20
Destielgate is a name given to a series of events in the Supernatural fandom, beginning on November 5th, 2020 with airing of Season 15, Episode 18 ("Despair"), which canonized Castiel's feelings for Dean. The semi-canonization of the Destiel ship was controversial and received a mixed response from fans; some fans celebrated the ship's canonization, while others renewed complaints of queerbaiting and homophobia. Destielgate extended past Supernatural's controversial final episode, leading to some fans referring to the event as Supernatural Season 16.
Destielgate also marked a period of increased Supernatural fandom engagement. Both the show and Destiel trended regularly on social media and blogging platforms as fans shared updates, theories, memes and shitposts. There was also noticeable increase in the production of Supernatural and Destiel-centric fanfiction and fanart. Notably, more than 4,000 Destiel fanfics were posted on Archive of Our Own between November 6th, 2020 and January 2021
Destielgate also became associated with, and occasionally synonymous with, fandom events and non-fannish current events occurring during the first week of November 2020 and beyond, such as the results of the 2020 United States presidential election.