UC San Diego is reportedly editing Dawn of a Deity for release in Florida.
Photo by Julia Wong
On June 1, UC San Diego sent out an email to students announcing that Sun God identifies as pansexual. The official UCSD Instagram account later posted a rainbow flag with the words “Yasssss Queen’’ in support of Sun God’s decision to come out. In a Pride-themed press conference, the head of the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Harold Oldman, explained the decision behind making Sun God pansexual, stating, “We held several meetings with our straight faculty members, discussing how to make this campus more inclusive to the LGBTQ+ community. After much deliberation, we’ve decided that having Sun God, the statue, come out as pansexual would send the strongest positive message to all the LGBTQ+ students on campus.”
Students have accepted the new pansexual Sun God with open arms. In a street interview, first-year student and runner-up on MasterChef Junior, Khan Fu-Syed commented, “As someone who has an intimate relationship with pans, I’m in full support of pan Sun God. But as someone who is also straight, I feel like my straight identity isn’t represented in the Stuart Art Collection. Why aren’t the other art pieces revealed to be straight?”
Later that day, the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion released a short film, titled Dawn of a Deity: The Life, Laughs, and Loves of Sun God the Pansexual on the UCSD YouTube channel. The short film quickly gained attention from the public with #DawnOfADeity trending on Twitter. In an interview with the director of the film, Gary Gillard explained his writing process, noting, “When drafting the script for Dawn of a Deity, I came to the realization that having Sun God as a lovable side character would be more representative of the LGBTQ+ experience because gay men only spawn into the world when straight women have a fashion emergency. That’s why I made Raquel Banana the main character, giving Sun God the opportunity to support a strong, straight protagonist.”
Dawn of a Deity received generally positive reviews from both students and critics. A survey showed that the most common words straight students used to describe the film were “empowering” and “heartwarming.” In the comments section under the short film, one person commented, “I literally cried when Sun God hugged Moon God. Nothing feels better than seeing a high school jock come out as gay to the queer kid that they tormented throughout their childhood. I just love the enemies to lovers arc with Sun God and Moon God.” The United Supporters of Pansexuals and Straights (USPS), a group of straight allies who “aim to build a better future for some sexualities,” issued a statement on the film, writing: “We are eternally grateful for the crumb of representation in Dawn of a Deity for our dear pansexuals. Our once bottomless hunger for representation has been satiated, and we will now refocus our efforts on only supporting straight people.”
Due to the popularity of Dawn of a Deity and Sun God’s increased visibility, there has been a tenfold increase in the number of fanfictions featuring Sun God on Wattpad, with the most popular story titled “Sun God x Y/N (pov you’re a UCSD student).” Netflix is already in the process of producing a film adaptation of “Sun God x Y/N,” which is set to be released next year. Subsequently, Netflix is expected to pay UCSD $4 million for the rights to use Sun God in the movie. It was revealed that this money will be used to build an on-campus Chick-fil-A in a leaked email from Chancellor Khosla to Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Truett Cathy.
