Hello Empty Closets folks! Odd question here as it relates to the furry fandom. In short, does an affinity for furry male homoerotica translate into actual homosexuality? To be clear, I don’t wish to suggest that furry art or literature causes anyone to be LGBT. Rather, is the prominent homoerotica in the furry fandom a less threatening way to explore one’s sexual orientation without directly raising the hackles of one’s internalized homophobia? Previous posts on this forum have discussed the high preponderance of LGBT folks in the furry fandom and why they believe this is. Many settle on the theory that furries are by their nature quite accepting and this leads to common cause with many LGBT folks, especially younger ones. However, I wonder if the aesthetic of the furry fandom has special appeal to gay and bisexual males. While there is some F/F art, by far and away it appears to be mostly M/M. To be sure, like many “nerd” fandoms, the furry fandom is predominately white, male, and young. This naturally leads to much of the literature, visual art, and “fursuits” catering to the interests of that group. For the personal tie-in, the furry fandom is what started my questioning of my own sexual orientation, later in life at the age of 23. It started with a furry gay romance novel I read and wound up enjoying the story to a greater extent than I had anticipated. I found the M/M intimate scenes arousing, but I chalked that up to just normal male libido - getting excited at anything remotely sexual. Then I started to take a closer look at the art, of which there is reams upon reams and damn did I like some of it. Indeed, one of my early moments of clarity was upon seeing a male furry character and thinking he looked cute: “Wait, did I just think what I thought I thought?!” followed closely by "Wait, does this mean what I think it means?!" I’ve come a long, long way from my early teens, when I was quite homophobic (and a general POS in several other ways). I made a conscious effort to be a less angry and hateful person around 8th grade and into high school, maturing considerably in that time. Eventually, I joined my college’s gay-straight alliance and in fact did educational presentations to the incoming freshers on gender identity, sexual orientation, and safe language. But never once did I seriously entertain the idea that I might be LGBT myself. I was a straight ally and that was it. End of discussion. I wasn’t exactly Casanova with the ladies but hey, that’s just because I had a specific lady in mind. I never really ogled at breasts but hey, that’s because I’m a gentleman, too polite for that. And I rationalized I’m more of a vulva guy - the straightest guy among the straight fellers by golly! Okay, you get the idea … it’s probably a shibboleth around here that the human mind is capable of incredible levels of self-deception and rationalization. Unfortunately, even now I’m shocked and offended at intrusive thoughts that are disgustingly homophobic. I guess I have a far greater amount of internalized bigotry than I had first thought. I guess one can feel “enlightened” on a rational, intellectual level yet still be quite uncomfortable where the rubber meets the road. My head has been full of strange and downright stupid thoughts. I have thought/occasionally do think I don’t have a “right” to be gay or bi because I would have it “too easy” coming out later in life, not being bullied as a kid for my SO. Hell, I even thought that there were “enough” gay people as it is and y’all didn’t really need me to add another. Phew. Yeah, really really ridiculous thoughts. Good Lord. So, to re-hash a long-winded wall of text: does liking anthropomorphized dudes comport with liking real dudes? Thank you for reading and God bless y’all! Happy National Coming Out Day folks! -G17G4 Footnotes: The furry fandom is a culture/hobby for fans of anthropomorphized animals. People participate in various ways and to different extents: some just look at the art from time-to-time, whereas others go for the whole kit and caboodle and buy themselves a fursuit and commission works of art of their “fursona.” Interestingly enough, informal surveys within the fandom itself show an even 33-33-33% split between straight-bisexual-gay. While a lot of the art is sexualized, many furries (myself included) are quick to point out that a lot of the art is PG.
TLDR, but your sexuality comes first then whatever else - furry stuff in your case. If it was male on female you wouldn't say that it made you straight.
I'm actually curious to know about this "gateway" as well. I barely interacted with other kids when I was younger (6-10), and instead I had a television for a friend and companion. Often times, I found myself extremely attracted to the male anthropomorphic cartoon characters. When they came on the screen, something in me turned away out of shyness; and were just pixels! They couldn't have cared less about me! This interest essentially translated to thinking more about these characters in a more "personal" way, and it eventually escalated into furry pornography as I got older. I preferred this much over human porn, and I was particularly interested in the M/M art. This continued throughout the majority of my puberty (including now, unfortunately) and, going back to actual human porn, I found myself much more attracted to gay porn than straight porn. Of course this isn't in itself an accurate predictor (because I've only experienced fantasy and not actual sexual contact), but I found it very telling in terms of who I find myself attracted to (especially with M/F art where I tend to focus more on the male as well). So...I guess it's a YMMV thing? Coming to terms with it now, I think I saw it as a way for me to deal with my sexual attractions and urges during a period in which I especially felt misanthropic, and now that I'm getting older I'm allowing myself to try being attracted to actual people. Either this is true, or else I'm very underdeveloped in dealing with my feelings, as in avoiding them rather than addressing them. Now, If only I could figure this step out.
A good friend of my wife, a young man who lived his life as straight, entered the furry community and used that as a safe, accepting place to explore is sexuality. It's a healthy way to get to know yourself and figure out what you want and need.
I guess the furry fandom was part of what started me questioning as well. I mean I always had kinda a thought but it was way in the back of my mind. I saw some m/m artwork and I guess my thoughts went from 'what the hell?' to 'huh, that's actually kinda nice' to 'Yeah I like it a lot'. All in a fairly short amount of time. I went through the 'I'm straight, but I like gay stuff' phase, then 'maybe I'm bi' to 'now that I think about it, I don't even like girls. I must be gay'. I don't think the furry fandom acted as a gateway for me as much as a trigger. I never really thought about being straight or gay until then. I guess it kinda triggered some thoughts that got me questioning. But I think if it wasn't furry, there would be something later that triggered the thoughts. I'm still in the fandom too.
Hey all ... thanks for your responses! Foz, I certainly agree with you on your last point. I started out looking at (and still occasionally) enjoy the M-F stuff, but it seems to be less so as time wears on. And you're quite right on your first point as well - the thing is as user dragon20 points out after your post - furry seems to be a "trigger" in my case, or the first crack in the dam. The question I've been grappling with is one of authenticity, since I'd feel like a fool to say I'm gay or bi but wind up feeling that this was a mistake. Artemisarked, thanks for sharing your personal experience. I really appreciate it. I think anthropomorphic art is stylized and idealized enough to arouse interest, yet different enough so as to not raise one's hackles of internalized homophobia, should any exist. As a test, I have looked over the favorite images by "confirmed" gay people (awkward term I know, sorry) and sought to see if I also liked most of what they liked. Good luck to you sir. Have a hug. Willa, it seems many folks have trod this path and I'm at the "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" stage when it comes to seeing myself as either bi or gay. The furry fandom, for whatever its ills (some folks have no tacit nor standard of "it's just a hobby people"), is a very safe sphere in which you can explore sexuality and identity. For that, I am forever grateful even if it strikes many as strange. dragon20, it seems like I'm treading a very similar path you went down. And that word - trigger - I actually think that's a better term than "gateway." I was using the word gateway as in "gateway drug." Each of you - thanks once again for humoring my somewhat weird question. Hope you all are doing well. Be kind to others and yourselfs.
