I’m a real-life furry and my lifestyle is no dirty ‘cat litter box’ joke
nypost.comput a litter box in one of its bathrooms for “the kids that identify as cats,” as one harried parent put it. Far from merely identifying as felines, furries are an anthropomorphic community whose members sometimes dress up as a variety of animals at conventions, or who have a special “fursona” with whom they connect.
At least 250,000 Americans identify as “furries,” and though a subset of the group say they’re into it for sexual reasons, more often it’s nothing more than fan-driven escape.But while the school bathroom claim was quickly debunked, furries say it’s disappointing to see their community ostracized.“It is a shame that the furry community still endures (some) negative media portrayals and public misperception as deviants because the truth of this remarkable and resilient community is far more interesting,” Dr.
Sharon E. Roberts, associate professor at the University of Waterloo and a co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, told The Post.At the same time, furries such as Joe Strike are taking the high road, and believe that, over time, the community will benefit the increasingly de-stigmatized and mainstream subculture. “I think that, in the long run, this kind of attention will help us,” Joe Strike, who identifies as a furry and penned the 2017 book “Furry Nation” told The Post.
The kitty litter story was quickly found to be “total nonsense” but may have had more staying viral power in reaching many people who’d never before heard of the alternative lifestyle — some of whom may find they relate to it, said Strike, who dresses up as a suave Komodo dragon named Komos.
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