Ahh, furries… We are the crazy adorable animal people you hear all about roaming the grid. Strange, weird, and colorful, we’re well known for keeping to ourselves, rarely being seen outside of ‘our spaces’, places created for furries. However, especially in recent months, several of these spaces have begun to cater to human and other non-furry users, prompting a major shift in many long-standing SL codes of etiquette. To better examine this dynamic shift, I want to bring your attention to one of the largest furry clubs on the grid, GYC.
Founded in 2001, GYC is a massively successful, long-running club that has historically catered nearly exclusively to furries and furry-adjacent users. Billed as a premier LGBTQ+ Club, many of the users who congregate here fall into the community, including users who are gay, lesbian, transgender, and all shades in between. Whereas many other clubs in this community can come off as very cliquish, and not welcoming to new patrons, GYC has always tried to welcome any who walk into its doors, with many users reaching out to welcome and assist others. Patrons here feel like one big mosh pit of friends and family, instead of small groups keeping to themselves. However, until recently, this hospitality did not apply to non-furry users.
Historically, furries have often been seen as a ‘taboo’ in many of SL’s major populated areas. We are ignored in public, if not outright harassed by other users. As SL’s code of conduct has grown over the years, we have seen a shift away from this form of exclusion and harassment, but ask yourself: The last time a furry walked into your club, did you or others go out of your way to make them feel welcome? Like they were included? This practice isn’t just exclusive to human and popular clubs, as many furry spaces, GYC included, have had a history of similar exclusion. It’s always easier to ignore the oddballs, those who don’t fit in, rather than extend a hand and make them feel welcome. However, many spaces are going out of their way now to prevent this.
While many of the patrons at GYC would argue otherwise, the management has declared that anyone and everyone is welcome within the club, regardless of how you identify or present, human, furry, gay, straight, etc. Staff, including hosts and DJs will happily welcome and shout out any who shows up, no more so that GYC’s popular and interactive mixed set DJ, Surfurry, who always manages to draw a massive crowd from all kinds of users when he plays. The dance floor explodes into a massive throng of avatars of all kinds dancing together and for a few hours, it feels like borders and boundaries no longer exist.
Behind our screens, each one of us is a human being wishing to be seen and accepted. Many of us came to SL for that exact reason, and the freedom to create an avatar of what we want has been a liberating experience for us. When we started dividing and labeling ourselves due to aesthetic differences and lifestyles, we put ourselves back into the same boxes of isolation we were trying to avoid. However, when we look beyond the avatar at the person behind the pixels, whether human, furry, neko, angel, demon, or whatever, we find the same thing: another human being to connect with and forge friendships with. While it’s been such a long period of time for the furry community to be divided from the main user base, changes are slowly happening and acceptance, both towards and from the community, is slowly happening. So before you judge and ignore that rabbit person in the corner, take a night and walk in our shoes (or lack thereof), take a moment and get to know them, you might be surprised. In addition, if you ever want to take a walk on the fuzzy side, places like GYC have you covered with open and welcoming arms!
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