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I publicly outed myself as a furry. Nothing bad happened.

Furry Reddit - Sat 4 Jul 2015 - 21:19

Some back story: I was a closet Furry for approximately thirteen years (thanks, Star Fox Adventures). My (anonymous) FA account was registered in 2006. Out of shame and out of fear of being ostracized, I never interacted with the Furry community until I went to a Furry convention in late May this year, where I absolutely fell in love with the Furry community.

Today was the second day of the Montreal Comic-con.

I spent the entirety of day one handling one of my fursuiter friends. We walked around the convention floor, getting pictures taken, hugging people, messing around. I joked that he was my "weaponized hug machine": whenever I ran into someone I knew, I would point to them and order my fursuiter to hug them.

Nothing bad happened.

Most people loved him. The general public had no notion of Furries or fursuits, and tried to guess what he was cosplaying as - people threw out guesses like "the big bad wolf from Red Riding Hood". It felt a little odd telling them it was an original character, a personal design rather than a reference to some existing intellectual property.

I don't know why I feel weird or bad telling people that we're creative enough to make our own characters rather than rip-off existing ones. I saw Harley Quinns, Jokers and League of Legends characters for days.

Kids loved my fursuiter - so did parents. One girl fell completely in love with him, requesting hugs and piggyback rides. She was an instant convert.

People asked about the suit, mused about how hot it was, asked how it was made and who had made it. We handed out business cards for the maker's studio. Some people expressed genuine interest in getting a suit done. Some balked at the price and expressed admiration. A few mentioned their own fursuit was in the making.

I heard the word "furry" being called out - "Look, Furries!" - and each time I heard it my body tensed up, bracing for the storm of violence that I expected would follow. But it never did.

"Oh my god, a furry!" "Over there, furries!" "It's a furry!" "Furry!"

There simply is no contingent of enraged psychopaths who would assault you for wearing a fursuit in public. There may be bigots who would voice a strong negative opinion while anonymous on the Internet, but those people will never have the courage to do so in real life. People may identify you as a Furry, and they may have some notion of what that word means - and they don't care. Some people will look at you funny, some people may get scared and try to avoid you, but it doesn't matter.

In fact, it's part of the fun.

Part of the fun is seeing the reactions people have. Fursuits make the world a more surreal place, and they shock people into action. They're so unique and uncommon that they break people out of the mundane and solicit strong reactions - but not once has that reaction been violence or hostility. In most case, it's curiosity.

Once you put on the fursuit, you become a curiosity. You become unique. You become something cool that people want to know about and take pictures with.

Being a Furry is not a bad thing. Being a Furry makes you awesome to the world at large.

On day one I met several old coworkers and acquaintances. I had my fursuiter hug them. Most were amused and found it funny - they all smiled. Not one expressed disgust or revulsion. They continued talking to me as normal, even after I had made it clear this fursuiter was my good friend and I was taking care of him. I mentioned that I was getting a similar suit done myself, that I would be wearing it at the next convention and that I couldn't wait to receive it. I showed them my Fursona and told them I was going to Anthrocon. Not a single person seemed to mind.

Even after I had clearly aligned myself with Furries, not a single person I knew showed a negative reaction.

On day two I ran into the artist who was doing my badge, which looks like this: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17015124/

I put it on and went about about my business: handling five fursuiters.

It was a logistics nightmare, and keeping everyone in the furry train happy and healthy was a challenge, but we pulled it off. And you know what?

**Despite proudly displaying an openly Furry badge, despite being surrounded by five fursuiters and despite doing all this in a public space where everybody could see...

NOTHING BAD HAPPENED.**

The world at large knows I am openly Furry. There are hundreds of photos of Fursuiters posing with me in the background, Furry badge around the neck. I can never go back to hiding it, but I will never want to. I am Furry, and I am happy and proud.

Once the Fursuiters put their costumes away, I wandered around the convention solo, still proudly displaying my Fursona badge. I casually mentioned my Fursuit to people. I told them I'd be wearing it next month. I showed them my badge, telling them my costume would look like this. I showed them my refsheet. I asked the girl cosplaying Ahri about her tails, and shared my concerns for my own tail. I chatted up the girl who sold ears and tails, and she asked me if I would be at FE (I will). I made a new friend, a red Fox wearing an enormous adorable head and a partial suit. I felt a sense of kinship with the people wearing full body costumes and offered them water from one of the five bottles I was carrying, which they usually took with gratitude.

I felt like I was part of a secret society. Anyone wearing a furry convention T-Shirt was an automatic friend. Anyone wearing a Fursuit was an automatic source of hugs, and even more hugs after I offered them water.

I strongly wanted to ask the man in the Rengar costume if he was a Furry. He probably just liked Rengar, but who knows?

Liking Rengar how it starts.

PS: I will be at Anthrocon 2015. This is what I look like. I'll be wearing those two pictures around my neck as badges. If you see me, feel free to come talk to me!

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