Historical debates
Florida passes bestiality bill; awaits Gov's signature
Posted by Insane Kangaroo on Thu 5 May 2011 - 16:39A long-standing issue regarding the potential legality of bestiality in Florida is expected to be put to ease soon with the governor's signature.
Animal abuse cases have been known in Florida; many may have seen a story where a blind man named Alan Yoder, known as Jayren in the furry fandom, admitted performing sex acts with his guide dog — although in that case, the lack of a specific law did not prevent him being charged with felony animal cruelty.
Senate Bill 344 (full text), which makes acts of bestiality a first class misdemeanor, passed the House Wednesday at 115-0 and awaits Governor Rick Scott's signature before becoming law. If signed, it becomes effective October 1. The Senate bill previously passed on a vote of 38-0.
Update (May 7): Noted the identity of the man sparking the case, provided by rodox_video.
Fur-dom and the Media
Posted by Anon on Sun 11 Jan 2004 - 08:31Why does furry exist as a fandom? Why all the cons in public places where furs strut their stuff while wearing tails, ears, or full animal costumes? Why all the web sites? Was this not in order to be noticed? Congrats: you got noticed. There are several articles here at Flayrah about this, and these have generated blizzards of comments. Now you complain, complain, complain that the media aren't treating you right. Cry me a river! Furs b**** about a "Vanity Fair" article (Pleasures of the Fur) a TV show (CSI: Fur and Loathing) an MTV "documentary". All "unfair" and "sensationalized", well, guess what: that's what the press does. After all, it's not news if 10,000 airliners land and take off without incident; the one that crashes is news. That the vast majority of furs live the balance of their lives just like everyone else is not news. The one fur who wanks kids' toys, or yiffs in full costume: he is news.
Remember furries on CSI?
Posted by Anon on Thu 25 Sep 2003 - 14:13Those of you who remember the article from a short while back discussing an episode of the show CSI that would feature furry fans from our own SoCal group might want to check this out. It seems someone's efforts to give the fandom yet another black eye have sadly succeeded.
Turbulence in Tulsa as ousted Tails and Tornadoes president starts new convention in same hotel
Posted by Sonious on Fri 10 Sep 2021 - 10:25
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tails and Tornadoes is a young convention that's been running in the Central U.S. state since 2019. Its premiere year was reviewed here on Flayrah by one-time contributor Koori Kitty. Like the weather system it was named after, the con has subsequently found itself in a whirlwind that's rattled its organization.
The first shakeup was one that affected most gatherings, in that its second year was unable to be held in 2020 due to COVID-19 closures. But on top of this, the same year brought in political fallout from the final year of Trump's presidency. Riots in the American Midwest soon spurred worldwide protests following the murder of George Floyd by a law enforcement officer, where the unarmed black man was strangled by a knee to his neck that was held there for over eight minutes. The entire duration of the strangulation was recorded on a smartphone and shared over the Internet.
The United States government, under the leadership it held, decided to go against the advisability of de-escalation in these matters and instead responded with hostile rhetoric. Given the shutdown of many non-essential jobs due to the pandemic, this created a perfect storm of vocal protests and rioting towards an unsympathetic system, sentiments that spread far beyond the Midwest where the murder took place.
Update: Correction made about staffing shifts from 2020 to 2021 in Tails and Tornados per Koori.
Card game with custom fursonas: 'Secret Names [Furry Edition]'
Posted by Ben Dover on Sat 14 Nov 2020 - 12:13
Secret Names - Furry Edition is a Indiegogo-funded card game in which two teams try to pick words from hints to their meanings — many related to furry culture. Gameplay is similar to that of Vlaada Chvátil's Codenames, but with a distinctive furry style and artwork.
Editor's Note: The article contains promotion of content created by the article's author.
Fur Affinity administrator resigns amid hate group policy controversy
Posted by Equivamp on Fri 8 Dec 2017 - 23:05quoting_mungo, who has moderated multiple furry websites and would have been on Fur Affinity's administrative team for five years on January 27, 2018, resigned today, she announced in a Fur Affinity journal entry. Apparently originally aiming to resign mid-January or February, it appears decisions for and reactions to Fur Affinity's new policy regarding hate groups encouraged her to cut that time short.
Discussed briefly here on Flayrah previously, Fur Affinity user Pokefound uploaded a $15 commission they'd drawn, depicting a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-styled character, wearing a swastika armband and SS collar tab, performing a Nazi salute against a background of Nazi Germany swastika flags. Believing it to be a violation of the hate group policy, another user reported it via Fur Affinity's trouble ticket system.
A survey of furry story sites
Posted by Chipotle on Sun 13 Nov 2011 - 20:06Way back in May 2006, I wrote a little piece called “The State of the Furry Zine.”
This is a somewhat informal update to that survey.
No matter what kind of work you create, thought needs to go into where you’ll publish it. Writers have more to consider; each site handles text differently. Print publications still carry a different weight for writing, as do e-books; there’s a quantifiable difference between having your story read as a Fur Affinity post versus on a Kindle. But has the web won?
This Is Life presented Furries as a wholesome coping mechanism, and that's fine
Posted by CassidyTheCivet on Wed 28 Nov 2018 - 21:16
Our fandom had been waiting for a Sunday night to watch CNN, a moment of truth.
A year earlier, Anthro Northwest sprung a surprise documentary film crew onto its attendees. It immediately caused an uproar online. There was much debate and drama around it, and then things were silent.
The film crew belonged to Lisa Ling and her new flagship show for CNN, This is Life with Lisa Ling. An episodic documentary program to highlight some of the oddities in our humble society. I, like many furs I'm sure, had never heard of the show nor seen it. It felt like we were in for another nasty media portrayal.
Closer to the airdate, we discovered that our subculture was going to be the show's season finale. Pressure's on, right?
Oklacon canceled for 2015, more than likely permanently
Posted by crossaffliction on Fri 25 Sep 2015 - 22:15
Oklacon, held since 2003 (originally as "Festival of the Feral") at Oklahoma's Roman Nose State Park and billed as "the world's largest outdoor furry convention," has been cancelled for 2015, and probably permanently. The convention's website now contains an announcement of the cancellation:
So, it is with a sad and heavy heart that we inform you that Oklacon is cancelled this year and indefinitely.
We understand the extreme disappointment and trouble this will cause those who had planned to attend this year’s iteration of the world’s largest outdoor furry convention. We understand some may have arranged travel, time-off, or forfeited other plans to attend Oklacon - and to those who have been adversely impacted by the State of Oklahoma’s decision - we are extremely disappointed too.
4 problems the list of problems Futurism has with Musk's furry curiosity has - as written by a furry
Posted by Sonious on Sun 14 Apr 2019 - 20:23It all started when SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk made a strange tweet that was but one simple word. With that one utterance people started talking in the furry fandom. That word was “fur-curious”. A neologism that indicates that one is interested in fur activities though may not be one themselves. This came up when Elon was discussing a tweet about an article revolving large red squirrels found in India.
The furry fandom’s reaction was as mixed as the backgrounds of people that comprise it.
There are furries who are definitely Tesla fans and would more than likely welcome Musk with open arms: such as the lead administrator of SoFurry and this mouse guy name Twig who proudly shows himself plugging in his Telsa Model 3. However since they’re a Telsa employee, it might make it difficult to use the fandom as an escape from the grind if the boss dives into his hobby.
Those who are not interested in the eccentric billionaire were far more vocal in their concerns. Some of these are furries may have strong misgivings about the CEO’s behaviors surrounding labor unions. Or they may criticize appropriation of government funding for private ventures such as the Tesla solar facility in Buffalo, NY at the tune of 750 million. They also may have been put off by his brazen behaviors regarding a certain Thai rescue mission. Where Elon smeared one of those that rescued kids trapped in a cave as a pedophile when the British man who was able to save the children jibed at Musk who was “overthinking” a rescue solution. Detractors saw Elon’s child rescue plans as a publicity stunt for this company rather than a true act of altruism.
However, far more interesting was the reaction of one individual in the futurist community to Elon Musk’s furry fluff tweets. These communities are very eager to get into space, to plug their brain into the matrix, or maybe just having a world where renewable energy is the norm would be nice. They usually idolize their technology industry gurus. But furries are not space.
So they had one message for Mr. Musk: Get back to work.