Alright, I need to get something off my chest and it'll take a while, so bear with me. Last weekend there was a convention called the Midwest Furfest. I learned about it from someone on a mailing list that I lurk on, the Metamor Keep one. Now, there was a time when I religiously read the stories from that setting, but I quickly got lost and stopped. However, it and the Winds of Change story setting sparked a fire in me that burns still. Yes, I am a furry. Everything from the fandom, except yiff and ponies, hold a dear place in my heart, so understand my shock and alarm at hearing about a chlorine gas leak in the hotel across from the aforementioned convention. Police consider it to be a criminal act and in no way an accident. It is my hope that the catch whomever committed this attack against people who belong to one of my most favored fandoms and bring them to justice. With that out of the way, I'd like to try to shed some light on the furry fandom. First, disregard everything the media has told you about it. We all know the news has a tendency to focus on the bad points of, well, anything. The furry fandom is not a cesspit of perverse adults that get off on seeing animal sex. Sure, there's a good number of people who do, I'm not disputing that, but they are the minority. The vocal minority. As with all groups of people, there are those sects that shout their opinions to the world, and the world just assumes that it's the opinion we all share. It's a common problem. The majority of furs, as we're often called, simply like writing stories, drawing pictures, and otherwise fantasize about anthropomorphized animals (which the layman would call a furry.). Why? Well, my personal reason is because the world is mundane, and I like to escape to worlds where anything can happen. Worlds like the Metamor Keep setting, where staying for a week in Metamor all but guarantees you switching gender, being stuck as a 6-16 year old forever, becoming an anthropomorphized animal, or any combination of the three; like the FreeRIDErs setting, where people befriend sentient transforming power armor that requires their partner be the same gender and have matching ears and tail, and people can have their gender changed accidentally; of like the Winds of Change setting, where everyone becomes an anthropomorphized animal after hitting puberty. All of the story settings are colorful and creative, and are much more interesting than our world. Of course, my preference isn't restricted to the furry fandom; I'll read pretty much any story that has something this world doesn't. This isn't about that, though. There's an old proverb that seems applicable here: "Don't knock it 'till you've tried it." Now, I don't mean for you to go out and read the furriest, most scandalous piece of yiff on the internet. Far from it! In fact, I would suggest you stay away from it until you think you're ready. No, my suggestion is that you watch Disney's rendition of Robin Hood. "What?" I can hear you say. "That wasn't furry! It's Disney!" Ha! I reply. What you will see in that movie is exactly what the furry fandom is about, albeit more cartoony that most artists will do. Sure, the stuff everyone points at and shuns is the yiff (which I've mentioned a few times before. For those of you who don't know, "yiff" is essentially furry porn, and the name derives from the sound foxes make when having sex. For some reason, vulpines seem to have become the fandom's oversexualized mascot.), but there are plenty of gems if you actually look for yourself. "What about the creeps that wave at cars while dressed like a furry, Dan?" Well, firstly, they aren't all creeps. Secondly, the costume is referred to as a fursuit, is exceedingly hot without the proper cooling system, and is something people wear to get closer to their online personas. I think someone coined the term "fursona" somewhere, but I'm not partial to the term myself. Thirdly, waving at cars is a tradition among us, and we only really do it at conventions. Why? Not sure, never did it myself, but I like to imagine the reactions people would have at seeing a multi-species group of thin sports team mascots waving at them without a care in the world. Of course, this doesn't mean that the guy or gal behind the mask of Fluffy, your friendly local college mascot, is a furry. Chances are they're doing it for the hours, for the publicity, or because they lost a bet.

My great, overarching point is that being a furry isn't/ shouldn't be a social stigma. Technically, we're just ordinary people with unique ideas. I'm sure you have some hobby that would get you bullied in grade school. Mine was that I really liked reading anything and everything fantasy, spent more time in the school library than most kids spent in class, and almost always had a book thicker than my forearm with me (which you'd think would be a deterrent to bullies.). The furry fandom is a creative one, one where your ideas will be accepted (except the not happy ones. We keep those locked away deep inside where we'll never, ever, EVER find them. +1 to whomever gets the reference.) and nurtured. The people I've met because of this fandom have changed my life, and most of them were for the better. Again, I'm not going to pretend that the vocal minority doesn't exist, as much as I'd want them to, but I'd want you to keep in mind that they more just that: the minority.

So, when you're finished watching Disney's "Robin Hood", and you don't normally avoid reading like the plague, have a look at either the Metamor Keep, the Winds of Change, or the FreeRIDErs settings, keeping in mind that each of them has a story that kicks it all off. These settings are ones that I can all but guarantee have kid-safe stories and great authors (though I've had a run-in with a few stories that suffer grammatically, but those were deep into the archives, and I'd rather not slander someone's hard work. The stories are usually fine to excellent, it's just the grammar that's bad.), and ones that I personally enjoy thoroughly. 'Course, that's just my suggestion. There are plenty of other settings out there that are that I consider "kid-safe" (By which I mean "there's no graphic or 'on-screen' sex, though sexual acts may be alluded to". It isn't Game of Thrones, here.).

That's me done. I sincerely hope that nobody was harmed due to the acts of malicious individuals unknown at Midwest Furfest, and if people were harmed that they make a swift and complete recovery. If you ever see someone being discriminated against due to their interests, I hope that you step in to help or otherwise support them, even if you don't share their interests. Finally, remember that you can only expand the borders of your world by experiencing new things.

Sincerely,
Dan
Crusader, Gamer, Author, Tiger

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