Is it becoming dangerous to be a furry?

Serious Discussion Politics
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I know this is a dark title for a thread, but hear me out.

In the past few years, right-wing conservative media and Christian media have been frequently publishing articles slandering the furry fandom. Recent examples include this:

And this:

And some politicians in red states in the US have begun introducing bills targeting furries. Two examples:

There are many other examples besides these. I know misinformation about furies has been spread for a long time, but it feels like things might be different now. There’s a kind of malice behind how the far-right talks about furries that is genuinely starting to scare me. I am concerned that furries could be well on the way to becoming a targeted minority group that will be discriminated against, or maybe even criminalized, given the increasing power and extremism of certain segments of the far-right. I am increasingly worried about myself or others being surveilled, tracked, or put on a “Furry List”.

Any thoughts? Am I just being paranoid, or do you think there’s something to this?

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I think for the most part, it’s moved past that. Some of the more malicious parts of the American Right operate off of needing a scapegoat to get people scared. It used to be gay people. Furries were red meat for a while as a proxy to hating trans people, but nowadays, it seems they’re just targeting trans people openly and haven’t been targeting furries.

Which is not exactly much reassurance for trans people, but it is what it is.

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Very good point. I don’t fully agree that the far-right has moved past targeting furries–all the articles and bills I linked above are from within the last year or so–but I think you’re absolutely right that furries are seen as a proxy for LGBTQ and especially trans people, and that the American right-wing has recently become sufficiently emboldened to attack trans people openly.

What this makes me realize is that, not being transgender myself, attacks on the trans community may be something of a blind spot for me. I am certainly aware of the recent hostile actions against the trans community, but I haven’t been as focused on them as on other things. I’ve been thinking selfishly, and I need to try to do better and put some focus on issues that don’t affect me personally.

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Yeah, the core of it is was this idea that furries are “people identifying as animals” (which is not what we are…) attacking them can be used to suggest the “next step” to us accepting trans people. It was good for the narrative, so any chance of identifying the “danger” of furries served to turn people against trans people.