Ich Bein Ein Furry!*

        I'm really sick of this recent increase in the popularity of Furry-bashing. It's been around for a long, long time of course. I was at the Phil-Con, way back when, where we were given the monniker of "skunk-fuckers". I got to see Ed Vick's Mu Press immolate itself with the petulant and blindly published "Skunk!", and the recent Shawn Keller hypocrisy.
         Now, the in-thing is to be unkind and inflammatory towards furries in web-based comic-strips.
        To put it simply, I would ask the people running these strips: What is your major malfunction? As you sit in front of your computer, staring into the monitor, sketching out another comic strip, does is asgue your ego, make you feel more socially accepted, to have been able to point a finger somewhere and decry "Me? I'm not a geek and a loser! Look at them!" ? Did some friend of yours make some comment about "I hate those pervert furries!", and this was your sad, high-school-like "Me too!"? Get off your high horse. You don't know anything about me, what I do, or what I like, anymore than you can know the likes, interests, and thoughts of the thousands of other people who call themselves some sort of Furry. All you have is the pseudo-information of some yellow-press rag, like Vanity Fair, and the whinings of some individuals for whom things didn't go thier way, or who are so desperate to bow to the opinion of thier bosses that they'll refute, with all the fervor of Judas, thier association with something they secretly enjoy. All you have is prejudice.
        I'm Furry because I like anthropomorphic animals. Nothing more, nothing less. PERIOD. If you assume that my being a Furry means anything else, you're quite simply wrong.
         The sword cuts both ways. My being "Furry" doesn't mean I live a "Furry lifestyle". It doesn't mean I'm gay, or a "plushophile", a fursuiter, or that I have sex with animals.
        Certainly, I bring my own preferences into my version of "Furry". I like busty girls. I like handsome slim guys. I like guns, and sex and leather clothes, fantasy, adventure and action. All those things become part of what "Furry" is for me. The next person who calls themselves a Furry is just as likely to have no interest in those things as he or she is to love them, and they are no less a Furry for it. It's called individuality, you should try it some time.
        Lastly I want to address the deniers, the individuals who see fit, for myriad reasons, to try and convince themselves and others that they aren't Furry, despite all evidence to the contrary: If you like anthropomorphic animals, if that's what you prefer to read about, or write about, draw, or paint, or roleplay, who are you trying to fool? Steadfastly denying your interest is simply belittling yourself, and making you look like a fool in other's eyes. Pretending you're not something, just to hide from other people's prejudice is self-defeating. Being a Furry doesn't preclude you being anything else, it's something to be in addition to everything else.
        There's only one way to deal with prejudice: stand up to it. Prejudice is lies and ignorance, laziness and cowardice. It fails before truth and honesty, action and information. Want the Furry-bashing to stop? Want to see prejudice and hate of what we are wither and die? Stand up, look it in the eye, and say

* with apologies to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.