I was curious about the people who had brought that thing up at some point for someone, since the experience probably is interesting. Why did you bring it up in the first place, who did you tell about it or are you perhaps known publicly as a furry, and what was their reaction to what you said?

I'm still in the closet furry situation, where I've not told about it to anyone who I know because being a furry is considered still weird and the social stigma isn't something I'm excited about. However even though I'm a scaredy-cat, I'm interested about the people who've had the guts to come out and their experiences.

From my experience: Being a furry isn't part of my personal identity, it's just a community I happen to be in. I don't hide it, I've never wanted to hide it, and I feel no shame. Absolutely nobody I know has cared one bit that I like drawing animals and that I like cartoon animals. If you're genuinely really worried about a reaction, don't make it a big deal. As far as other people should be concerned, you like cartoon animals. That's what "furry" is.
So: please don't "come out" as a furry. Furry is a hobby. You don't come out as an artist or a gamer or someone who likes anime. lol

moonlit-comet said:

From my experience: Being a furry isn't part of my personal identity, it's just a community I happen to be in. I don't hide it, I've never wanted to hide it, and I feel no shame. Absolutely nobody I know has cared one bit that I like drawing animals and that I like cartoon animals. If you're genuinely really worried about a reaction, don't make it a big deal. As far as other people should be concerned, you like cartoon animals. That's what "furry" is.
So: please don't "come out" as a furry. Furry is a hobby. You don't come out as an artist or a gamer or someone who likes anime. lol

I know I probably shouldn't make it a big deal, and most people probably just think like:"cool" and move on if it would somehow brought up. I think there's just some underlying thought that if someone knows I'm part of the community that it'd result to exclusion from smaller local events I go to.
In that regard I do respect you if you have the balls to be so open about it. It's also a hobby for me but I feel like I have to personally hide it as much as possible, which definitely in certain sense is a small stress inducing factor.

nordicwerewolf said:
I know I probably shouldn't make it a big deal, and most people probably just think like:"cool" and move on if it would somehow brought up. I think there's just some underlying thought that if someone knows I'm part of the community that it'd result to exclusion from smaller local events I go to.
In that regard I do respect you if you have the balls to be so open about it. It's also a hobby for me but I feel like I have to personally hide it as much as possible, which definitely in certain sense is a small stress inducing factor.

I can very much assure you that the average well-adjusted adult would not mind one bit if they knew you like cartoon animals lol. Most people like cartoon animals. It's something a lot of people bond over, even outside furry communities.
A lot of the reason why people feel fear about being a furry is because they allow shame and "cringe" to control their thoughts. The fear of being caught or found out or excluded is definitely much stronger than the actual negative reaction you'll realistically achieve.

Carrying yourself with a big chest and confident personality will get you very far in that aspect - hard for people to kick you down if you don't let them in the first place. Confidence can be very hard to build, but I have faith you'll be able to be just as confident and open about yourself if you just take the first step.:)

I wish I had a similar positive take on it. I accidentally let it slip in a D&D discord that I'm in the furry fandom; cue instant ridicule, heckling, insulting images, and absolutely no involvement from the server moderators. I ended up leaving the server after an hour of trying to defend myself to absolutely no avail.

There's no way in hell I'd ever deliberately tell non-furries how I see myself.

Personally I don't super actively broadcast (IE: go around telling people, "Hi! I'm a furry!") but I also don't exactly hide it. The most amusing anecdote I have is that my user name on another site that I've helped run is literally an animal, with a matching profile image, and I've been helping run the place for over a decade now. Something furry community related came up as part of a discussion and I stepped into the conversation to explain since people were confused over it. I then got asked, "How do you know about this?" "Well I'm a furry." "Wait what?!" "Look at my user name. Look at my profile pic. I'm not exactly hiding it." Cue even more people posting disbelief. It was honestly incredibly amusing.

One simple reality, from my experience anyway, is that the people who are going to be the most "anti-furry" will generally be that way about the specific term "Furry". If you just say you like whatever specific thing you like then otherwise well adjusted people will just be very, "That's neat. :) " With most of the not well adjusted reactions tending to come from people who are either directly from chans or from communities that effectively grew out of those spaces where, with the latter type being way more about the label of "Furry" than anything else. (IE: Furries are those cringe weirdos from the CIS episode! / [Insert more modern equivalent here yourself] )

greyfrost said:
One simple reality, from my experience anyway, is that the people who are going to be the most "anti-furry" will generally be that way about the specific term "Furry". If you just say you like whatever specific thing you like then otherwise well adjusted people will just be very, "That's neat. :) " With most of the not well adjusted reactions tending to come from people who are either directly from chans or from communities that effectively grew out of those spaces where, with the latter type being way more about the label of "Furry" than anything else. (IE: Furries are those cringe weirdos from the CIS episode! / [Insert more modern equivalent here yourself] )

This is very true and was exactly the kind of thing I was referring to in my posts! And while it sucks to meet people who ridicule and get on your ass about being a furry, it is a good thing that what they choose to unmask themselves about is furries and not something far more damaging. A large amount of anti-furs have something else going on with them that can be a sort of litmus test of what they might think of other people. If anything the safest thing to talk about with someone is furries first, if you choose to speak to them about the subject.