Furry IS political

Please vote!

I’ve been pretty fortunate in that I don’t often run into the “oh please can’t we keep politics out of furry” crowd on Xitter or wherever they hang out, but I’m aware of them. I have read a review of Over Time where the reviewer was upset that I “got political” in the dedication and afterword, which must have meant my advocating for legal gay marriage. In the fifth book of a series about a gay relationship in contemporary society. I admit, that one has stuck with me because I cannot really grasp the mindset of a person who will enthusiastically read five books about a gay couple struggling with acceptance of their relationship and then say, “But when the author said gay marriage being legal was cool, I didn’t like that.” The closest I can figure is that people want furry to be a fantasy world, an escape from reality. Reminding them that Dev and Lee are facing struggles that many people are actually facing in the real world right this minute breaks that illusion, I guess.

Well, look. If you participate in furry as a community at all—if you go to cons, consume furry art, have furry friends—then I am sorry to tell you that politics is in furry already. Because “politics” is how we decide what rules we all live by, here in the real world together, and even if you are a straight white cis well-off male person, one of the minority of people not currently threatened by the political interests in our society, I 100% guarantee that one of your friends, or one of the people running a convention you attend, or one of the artists making art you love, is not straight, not white, not cis, not well off, and/or not male. And one of the political parties (it’s the Republicans) currently vying for power has explicitly said that if they get power, they will do whatever they can to make life harder for those non-straight, non-white, non-cis, non-well-off, non-male people. For your friends. For your convention organizers, your favorite fursuiter, your favorite artist or writer or musician or streamer.

What’s more, the Republicans have written up a big plan in which they have said they aim to ban pornography. And while you might be one of those straight white cis well-off male furries who doesn’t like NSFW art, please remember that Republicans also consider “books that acknowledge the existence of gay people” to be pornography. Do you really think they will hesitate over the finer distinctions of furry art?

Lastly, as we have gotten more visible to the mainstream, we are starting to be noticed by some people on—yes—the right. Watch the way they’re attacking trans people and drag queens and you can see the future of furry, too. People who express their identity in a non-traditional way? Who dress weird in public? Not okay. It’s already starting to happen—most of you know about the debunked “litter boxes in schools” story that nonetheless keeps getting repeated around. Some wingnut Xitter accounts are targeting furries now too. It’s only going to get worse.

Look. I get it. Furry is an escape for me, too. I don’t want to have to come here and ask y’all to vote. I want to talk about the books I’m writing, about how great our community is, about foxes and wolves and tigers and stuff. But to keep our community, we need to acknowledge that it’s threatened. We need to open our eyes and fight to keep it. And the absolute minimum there is voting for Harris for President, for a Democratic Senate, for local officials who will stand up to hateful rhetoric.

Politics is how we decide the rules of our society. And if you don’t speak up, someone else will decide them for you. Please go vote, by mail this week or in person on Tuesday.

Thank you.