@AVincentInSpace@furry.engineer
@TomAFox@meow.social @sec_yote_agenda@mstdn.party This is a really important point, which I'd like to build on. Attending the night market at Further Confusion 2025 was a transcendent experience for me. It was the first time I had ever been part of an openly queer-as-in-sexual space. It was the first time I had really been exposed in meatspace to the fact that there were people other than me who were horny in the same way I was, and that being horny was by no means something to be ashamed of. It also gave me a /much/ better idea of what an average body looks like. Most of the people in that room were shirtless. While there were a few hot twinks with abs that I got a bit of body envy from, they were outnumbered five to one by shirtless people proudly showing off their bellies. It was eye-opening and encouraging to see, in person, people who weren't Hollywood hot not being ashamed of how they looked.
@AVincentInSpace@furry.engineer
@TomAFox@meow.social @sec_yote_agenda@mstdn.party
Experiences like that one are something every young queer (and, I'd argue, every allosexual person) needs to have in order to grow up not being ashamed of their sexuality, which, provided all their tastes are safe, sane, and consensual, is something that no one, anywhere, should be.
I think if the furry fandom reacted the same way to events like that as we do to zoophiles, not just the furry fandom but the queer community as a whole would be the lesser for it.
I would still participate in the furry fandom and go to furcons if no NSFW was allowed, because fursuiters are fun to look at and second only to fat people when it comes to giving hugs, but my primary reason for participating in the fandom as things stand is queer counterculture. While I'm sure that would still be present to an extent, we as queer people would still be self-censoring to a massive degree and I'd argue a large part of counterculture, if not the whole, is to not do that.
