Did the furry fandom helps you discover your gender? Did it help you feel more welcome?

For me personally, being a furry helps me to cope with dysphoria for years before my egg cracked. I used to imagine that I’m an anthro animal all the time to cope with dysphoria before I even knew what dysphoria was.

And aside from a few trans communities (like r/egg_irl), the furry fandom also exposes myself to queer people and queer media in general, which in retrospect might help me sympathize with them more instead of hating it like what most people do.

I’m so glad that this community is very accepting towards people of all sexualities and gender. Being trans in this fandom generally feels pretty safe, at least safer than most other fandoms. Thank you so much.

  • Laurentide@pawb.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been using fursonas as a method of exploring my identity, even before I knew what a fursona was or that identity was even a thing you could explore. I had my “outer” sona, the cool, powerful, masculine fox who had a cynically detached attitude but still tried to protect others. Then there was the “inner” sona, the secret realer me, who was still male (because I thought he had to be) but ended up being very feminine in appearance and personality. Shy, caring, sensitive, small and cute…

    When I joined the fandom, it was my first encounter with actual members of the LGBTQ community and positive depictions of same. Lurking in r/furry showed me that they were just regular people and that most of the stuff I had been taught about them was lies. Also, the femboy foxes were cute. Like, really cute. “I want to be them” cute. Maybe that was what I am?

    Then I ended up in a conversation with a trans furry, a bunch of crazy stuff happened IRL, and one day I had a sudden realization: I’m not girly, I’m just girl, and my strangely feminine arctic foxboy (now fox-enby) sona was trying to tell me this all along. I never would have discovered any of this without the furry fandom.