It’s ok to be Takei
Interesting note from @anubicdarque over at http://bloodboundcomic.com
While not “Furry” this can affect quite a number of Furries going to school in the state of Tennessee who happen to be LGBT.
A bill now pending in Tennessee would prohibit teachers in that state from using discussing homosexuality or even discussing homosexuality in the classroom. The so-called “don’t say gay” law is premised on the misguided belief that, by not talking about gay people, they can simply make gay people disappear.
George [Takei, Star Trek TOS actor and Gay Rights advocate] is here to tell Tennessee, and all the LGBT youth and teachers who would be affected by this law, that he is here for you. In fact, he is lending his name to the cause. Any time you need to say the word “gay,” you can simply say “Takei.”
You can join the crusade against the Tennessee bill at the “It’s ok to be Takei” Facebook Page
The web site is: http://www.itsoktobetakei.com/
Follow the Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/#!/ItsOktoBeTakei
Note – There has been controversy and accusations over publishing this post. At no point did we claim this was relevant to all furries – note above it says it is of interest to those who “happen to be LGBT”.
The relevance is based on figures from the International Furry Survey done in January & February of 2011. Some of the data has been compiled and can be seen in the following chart: Sex Orientation Figures & Captions
The data was provided by Kathy Gerbasi, Ph.D. Professor – Psychology Social Science Division Niagara County Community College & Courtney Plante from The University of Waterloo.
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Quite right, it’s not “furry.” So what’s it doing on the Furry News Network? A lot of furry fans are into computers and games, is FNN going to welcome stories about those topics too?
Considering that 50% of the fandom identifies as bi and 25% identifies as gay, it may be of interest to that demographic. And as the matter of fact, we have both a gaming category and a technology category.
The gaming category is specifically called “Furry Gaming” and even though the Technology category doesn’t share the adjective, all the stories have some relevant furry connection.
Nearly 100% of furries eat food. Is that a reason to post stories about food? Of course not — people go to sites specializing in food for recipes, reviews, etc. Same for people interested in news about LGBT issues, they go to sites specializing in those topics.
This is a furry news site. Please stay on topic.
Really? Stay on topic? Dude. I created FNN to cater to the whole furry community…and some LGBT issues happen to affect the community. We were asked to look into this via one of our twitter followers.
Based on your logic, we should only cover fur cons, fursuiters, artists and authors – things that are strictly furry.
You are more than welcome to ignore any stories that are not what you consider to be on topic.
You’re entitled to do that, of course — it’s your site. But don’t pretend to be a furry news site. Call it Markos News Network and cover everything that interests you and your readers.
Since I can’t find a way to fine-tune the RSS feed to eliminate the categories I’m not interested in, I’ll just drop it.
While we’re breaching this subject, I would also like to provide input that some furries are going to be squicked when updates to TWO podcasts referencing male animal genitalia are frequently put as news. In light of all this, this site is starting to make the furry fandom look like a gay sexual subculture. I have nothing against gay people being in the fandom (I’m not exactly straight myself), but I /do/ have a problem when straight people are marginalized by the assumption that almost everyone is gay. Maybe we’d have more straight furries if the fandom were more welcome to them. This might just be me, but when I tell people I’m a furry, I’d like them to think it’s about animal people, not about sexuality.
That said, I think this site does a great job in general. This one issue just irks me.
We distribute the podcasts as a service. I really can’t say No – I won’t add your podcast because of the name. We do add a notice to the podcast post, that it contains adult materials.
Currently working on a potential upgrade to the site layout that will allow users to view the front page, without seeing some of the categories. It’s not designed to hide content, just to better showcase parts of the site.
I’m confused about the “marginalized” comment. The article this whole thing was based on clearly states that may be of interest to some furries that “happen to be LGBT”. From that point, things started getting hostile.
As for your other comment, about the statistics based on shoddy sampling – the figures I am referencing are provided by the International Online Furry Survey conducted by the University of Waterloo and Niagra College. The survey was tightly controlled and included several measures to weed out bad data and respondents providing bad information. The survey has to adhere to strict research and ethics guidelines. http://www.furrynewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sex-Orientation-Figures-Captions.doc
I don’t see why you couldn’t turn down podcasts for whatever reason. Eventually you might get an unquestionably inappropriate one and you’d probably want to turn that one down.
That would be a good feature. Equestria Daily, a MLP news blog, recently allowed users to view the site with fanfiction blocked because of complaints of being squicked by the large number of dark and/or needlessly steamy stories about cartoon ponies. I feel being able to block off-topic things and podcasts would help improve this site just like that improved that one.
I still think these off-topic things should go, though. It’s one thing to have news about animals, because that relates directly to what furries like. It’s another entirely to post things that you think the demographic would like. It’s basically the same thing as when they show professional wrestling on the SciFi channel, and I feel it compromises the integrity of the subject.
I realize the article does not DIRECTLY state that all furries are gay, but if there is an overwhelming amount of gay content, straight furries will feel less welcome. On the other side of things, I’m sure blogs out there that aren’t about being straight but have lots of posts about “getting bitches” are not going to get a lot of gay male fans, even if they happen to be interested in the main topic.
I’m aware of what that survey said. Because the furry population is not centralized, it is impossible to take a survey without HEAVY sampling bias. This is not the survey’s fault; it did a better job than most could. But that’s still a pretty bad sample, and it’s going to exclude more inactive furries and ones who do not go online or participate in the fandom’s community aspect. As such, the sample can only very vaguely approximate the true population. Since the more active furries are more likely to deviate from what’s “normal” than the inactive ones, I would imagine the percentage of straight furries is significantly larger than what that survey would show. I don’t doubt that furries are significantly gayer than people in general, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that most furries aren’t straight. Most likely, anyway.
So gay news is assumed to be relevant to furries?
Gotta love stereotypes!
As stated above, it’s about the FACT that most furries are gay/bi. If it was about stereotypes it would be something like, “It’s ok to be a dogfucker”
It’s actually not a fact, it’s a statistic based on a shoddy sampling method. That’s not to say it can’t be true (I actually doubt it is, but I’m not too sure), but it’s not an all-caps “FACT.”
Most furries are American. Does that mean we need political news too? Or perhaps we come here to get /furry/ news and not news that pertains to demographics we’re only statistically likely to be part of?
The guy that found this website about Takei and suggested it to Furry News Network, is a straight guy. Yep. He thinks that such things like its OK to be Takei is a good thing, even though it doesnt directly affect him. It does how ever affect his friends. Many of whom are furry, some who are not. Many straight furs, like me, do not find the amount of LGBT news and information on fursites to be offputting. For us it is simply another aspect of human sexuality. We may not share it but we aint gonna be put off by it.
Calm down people, it’s not like we are talking about Jam or something, although it isn’t entirly related, there is abot 25% to a third of furries who are gay so I do think it is important, besides this is awesome, George Tekai is the coolest gay guy ever XD