Thankfully, that CSI episode is nearing a decade old and a lot of people are forgetting about it. My family knows, because my sister has a big mouth, but thankfully they could care less. I told my friends where I went afterwards, they laughed and nothing changed.

Its almost a decade old now?! FFFFFFFF- I remember when that shit was new D:

My non-Furry friends don't mind one way or the other (the occasional joke is cracked, but nothing heavy). My family's probably a bit fuzzy on the details, but since Further Confusion is so close to the house they have a good enough picture of it all. I only tell other folks if the conversation has led to such a point that it matters to bring it up, as I find just bringing it up out of the blue to be weird for weirdness' sake.

At my last job one of the girls mentioned a dude who wore a tail to school. I laughed and said, "Oh, you have furries at your school, huh?" Every single person working there had no idea what that even was, which in my opinion is probably for the better. Considering the extreme sexual aspect a large majority(You can't tell me it's not large. Just look at this site.)furries associate with their fandom I'd rather not tell anybody.

As for the convention thing, I've never been to one, but when I mentioned them to family members I said it was a sci-fi art convention, which is pretty believeable. :D

As for the art thing, I show that stuf to everybody, furries or not. For the most part a lot of non-furry artists draw animal people as well and don't associate it with any form of fandom from what I found.

My closest friends know about me being furry. Family, nah. I don't take great pains to cover it up and it's a fairly sizable part of my "identity", whatever that is, so people tend to hear about it from me sooner or later.

None of the people who know care because they are awesome and so am I.

My family knows I like to draw "animal people", but they honestly have no idea of what a "furry " is (besides my brothers). Occasionally,one of my brother gives me a weird/almost taunting look when I do draw furries...
My friends don't have a clue on what a furry is either, the only furry stuff I draw outside the home is just a chibi little dog boy that my friends suggest looks like me.

A lot of people are most likely oblivious to the entire fandom, I remember showing an album art to someone outside the fandom and it was a headshot of a fox (with various wires and such) and the person was taken aback. I tell really close friends, but have become a bit more open about it. (will never say to family in fear of disownership), it helps to have at least one person whose caring enough to help me explore something I find different and fun to be in (although I am not pronouced here on the site, but I had enough outtings to assure that I like the fandom). The one thing I always hate though is having to explain the entire thing and most of the time they don't get it till I start waving pictures around.

It's to the point where both my parents have some inkling in my involvement. Mom knows what the conventions are, and Dad has actually read one of my furry novels (the clean one without all the gay fox sex in it, thankfully!).

I haven't really talked much about it to anyone at work or in school. It did come up at an LGBT alliance meeting a couple times but that's about it.

Still, it feels kind of odd that I've kept a hobby/lifestyle/social circle that is such a big part of my life under wraps.

Somehow most of my friends know of the furry fandom. Probably because everyone uses the internet so much. Only a couple of them have figured out I myself am one though. Thankfully, It's not that big of a deal to them.

Everybody knows, nobody cares :) Well, no, that's not true. People tend to get interested and impressed when I tell them about furry and show them things I've made. But it's the kind of info that comes out gradually after being around me for so long, it's not like I run up to every random person I see and tell them the history of the fandom or anything. xD
I treat it like any other hobby I'm really into, not some deep dark secret or anything.

Honestly, I've told a few folks and I really treat it just like coming out - there's nothing shameful about it, so there's no reason not to tell people.

Some of my close friends know but they're furry too so that doesn't count :T Other than that I don't really see it as being a big issue, I mean… Its not like being a frry defines me as a person, ya know what I'm saying? That would be like me saying "oh hey there, I keep aquariums as a hobby. LOL DON'T JUDGE ME BECAUSE I'M DIFFERENT!!!!!11!"

As nice as it is to believe that nobody really cares either way, the media has generated some pretty intense stereotypes about the fandom. Generally, I try to get a feel for how others perceive the fandom as a whole (I've found that it comes up surprisingly often in a college environment) before I start showing people any art. By a very fortunate coincidence, my roommate actually turned out to be a furry, so I can relax and unwind with some sketching whenever. Otherwise, though, I tend to keep my art and interests to myself; my family knows I take a particular interest in anthropomorphic animals, but they really have no idea about the fandom at all.

The photo documentary has been a real help for me in getting my interest in the fandom out there. But that's really as far as I'm allowed to lead, an interest. All my roommates/close friends now know that I really take what I'm doing seriously and that I've become very invested in it, to them it looks like I sort of became interested in october and since then I have become more and more involved, to the point where I can show them some work I like (like your little book!) and say "this is some furry art that I like". Heck, my profile picture on facebook is me hugging a fursuit, but as far as I know everyone really likes what I'm doing.

My parents are a sort of interesting topic. In highschool my mom confronted me on being on the computer all the time, and said something about "Gay foxes", that was a terribly awkward conversation, and after that it never really got brought up again. In doing my documentary I originally (and very bluntly) refused to tell my parents what I was working on, only giving vague descriptions. But after returning from FWA, I gave my mom my URL to my photo site and she said she thought it was weird but interesting and she liked the photos. I even told her I planned to go to Anthrocon this summer and she was okay and even encouraging.

The only problem with all this is that I wonder if I will start to lose credibility as I become more and more publicly supportive of the group, but only time will tell what happens there! I have more that I feel I wish to express, but I am tired and I am better verbally than textually.

Two of my family members know that i'm a furry. I've only ever met one other furry in rl, and I didn't even know he was a furry until about four years ago. (I met him at a fourth of July party he had at his house a few months prior)

The term is so loaded with a stereotype that I only bring it up around people who know me well enough to know how I stand with regards to that. Saying you're "a furry" brings up images of people fucking in fursuits and while, uh, sure, I have nothing against that, it's not the first image I want a new acquaintance to have of me. I hate having to explain what a "furry" is too, it's really boring, and for me showing my work and stuff can be a little bit TMI for relatives and strangers, considering the stuff I draw. A lot of my non FA stuff is pretty furry thematically, so I just let that speak for itself and don't bring up my fandom involvement unless it's relevant to the conversation!

I agree 100% with  swatcher. Just last week someone asked me about a project I was working on and the conversation turned south. Now I'm not sure what the person thinks of me, but I'm also not sure I care. I'd say more than half of the non-furs I end up discussing this stuff with could care less, but there's always a few who only know the stereotypes. Proceed with caution.

My brother and dad know, its not that I don't want to tell or try to hide it from me family, its just that I really have no reason to, and besides its not like I'm a furry, in just a kemono artist.

I'm pretty open about it. Professionally, It's going to come up, so I might as well embrace it and define it on my own terms before somebody else can define it for me. I introduce myself as the "self-appointed beleaguered intellectual wing of the furry fandom."

just call them cartoons heheh

^^^

Probably the best advice here

be a cartoonist

Yeah, I do the same. I told my mother I was going to meet some cartoonists/artists, which was not a lie.

Of people that actually know me, only a few friends know I'm a furry. I don't tell my family, because they don't need to know. Other friends, the same. If people are around I have no reason to be drawing, so I don't really have to worry about people finding out. And if people do find out (Like my roommate one year), eh, so what. Then again, turns out he only found out because he was also a furry and recognized FA.

I am open to some not to others and as for convention cover stories people know i am a bit of a nerd so i say it was a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention.

It depends! I try not to engage in too much talk of it around my family; they know it's a significant source of income for me but they don't ask for details and I don't volunteer them. My mom once asked me what a fursuiter was, when I was wearing my bad fursuiter's club t-shirt, and I said that they are "people who dress up like animals for recreational purposes."

In employment situations, I typically keep it on the downlow until I've built enough of a rapport with the coworker or employer in question that I'm no longer concerned about squicking them, and even then I don't bring it up unless there's a reason to.

All of my friends are furries currently, no word of a lie. I like it this way, because to be honest I don't have any secrets; I can be as perverted and weird as I want. Family is a different story though; they all know I'm gay, and they all know that all of my friends are weird and geeky, and that we have some pretty juvenile obsessions. That's about as far as I've gotten.

I was really terrified of people finding out I was a furry for a long time so I hid it. Eventually I started telling some of my close friends and I get teased a bit, but I also get to make self-deprecating jokes *and* be honest about who I am, so it's for the best. The teasing (at least with my friends) is not meant in a mean way. I was tense about it at first, but it's calmed way down. Some of my friends would rather not know but they don't really care; we just don't talk about it much. I work on them gradually. Somehow I got into the position of power here, where I make their discomfort with furries into a joke for me. *shrugs*

Actually y'know, I'm not sure I answered the important question which is why do you need to tell people? Is it because you really want to? I felt a lot of pressure inside. If you don't, then make your books and prints.

Like artdecade says, nobody's gonna second guess it really. Especially with your art style, which is not hyperreal wolfcocks etc! Unless you're hiding them from us.

None of my RL friends are furry or into cartoons, so I never bring it up and they don't ask me to show them my art.

My sister knows, but she doesn't care because she's cool. She's not a furry, but she is the one who gave me those Albedo comic books, which is how I got started.

I think furries are getting more mainstream all the time. I think the csi episode isn't bad press at all for the community. It seems odd to me that the community is so eager to deny it's fettish side when that is what distinguishs it from funny animals.

The things that I think are detrimental to the communities image are people who are engadged in rl pedophilia and bestiality. The news stories I hear about that seem to be increasing, which is to be expected as the community continues to grows.
Another price of potential bad press I have heard about is a reality tv show called "coming out furry". From what I have heard it's made by the people who made intervention. I can't imagine any reality tv show that is not exploitative by nature.

is that gonna be a real TV show? I can't imagine the furry community is even big enough to keep a show like that afloat

ALSO I do kind of hope the whole furry thing IS becoming more mainstream, if only to force its members to take more responsibility for their self-images and their actions. I get that for some people it's a whole "whoooo finally I can escape myself" sort of deal, but some of them use that excuse to perpetrate some nasty shit. there's gotta be standards

You have raised some great points. I definitely agree with you about taking responsibility for your actions. As far as the show goes I heard about it last month sometime but it was in the final stages of casting calls. I have no doubts that there are enough people for the show. Inevitably too the show will end up drawing in new people to the community as well, so it won't be all bad.

As far as my fetish comment goes, i probably should have stated it as "the original distinction between furries and the funny animals that came before them is the idea that anthropomorphic creatures could be used to tell adult stories". That's the definition I go by.
Peoples miss understanding of the term has lead to any anthropamrphic drawings to conciddered furry. Perhaps the terms "furry" and "furry fetish" should be used to distinguish from the adult and non adult sides of the community.

I guess?? seems like everybody here has a different definition of what the term "furry" means, though it all involves sentient animals of some sort or another. it also depends on whether you define "adult" as "intended for an older demographic", or as "specifically about sex". I draw a webcomic about animal people that's written for people maybe 15 and older, but I didn't draw it to give people boners, so does that mean it's furry or what? furthermore, is it "acceptable" to market it to the furry demographic and to Joe Shmoe non-furry webcomic readers as well?

I dunno, I like drawing animal people, but thinking about junk like this sort of makes me wonder if THE FURRY FANDOM is really something I should even be taking the time to associate with

also worth noting that while it's ignorant to wash over the fetish part of the community, I also really, really don't want people associating any of that sort of shit with my work and taking me less seriously because of art I didn't even draw

most people don't know what the shit furries are. you, Redacteur, have a unique-enough style that you could probably get away with calling your stuff "cartoon animals" and most people would be like "whatever, cool". SEEMS LIKE IN MOST CASES people who flip the fuck out over you visiting furry conventions and drawing animal people aren't the kind of people whose opinion is worth respecting in the first place.

as long as you don't wave it in anyone's face or say stupid stuff like "HRRUNNNNHGGGHHH THIS IS WHAT DEFINES ME, FUK U HUMENITY"-- as long as you stay in it for the art and the friends, and not because you think it'll fill some weird fandom-shaped hole in your psyche-- you should be fine.

STILL, of course, I've personally gotten my share of shit talked about me, and I DO worry about any fans I might be alienating by drawing animal people stuff, plus whether or not it's gonna end up slamming shut some doors in the comics industry for me down the line, so I keep anything I post on this site/furry cons I go to mostly on the down-low. I DUNNO, what I'm saying is just have some fun but try to keep everything in perspective with the rest of your life and art career??

I'm still figuring this shit out myself so w/e

I have to agree with this amazing crapshoot assemblage of words.

i'll probably never go to a convention, so i won't tell my parents. if i did they'd just kinda, not understand and it would be incredibly awkward and unnecessary to explain. i don't know, unlike being gay or whatever it's something that i don't feel i need to express to everyone because some people just have no idea what the hell furries are and wouldn't understand.

a bunch of my friends in real life know i'm a furry and joke about it sometimes, but they don't mind overall. i haven't lost any friends over it. i am very comfortable with keeping my furry interests out of the way of people who aren't into that stuff

with me and the people in my life it just isnt that big of a deal and i like it that way

The general public here are unaware of what furry is, and in fact, most modern subcultures don't permeate the daily sights and sounds of life in the city. You don't see goths or punks or skaters or hipsters, except where you'd /obviously/ expect to find them, such as clubs or coffee shops.

Furry is quite secretive, and less known about among my own generation than even the animé subculture, members of which may or may not have heard of furry through the internet; and either way, don't know enough about it to form an opinion.

So, when I tell people that I'm a furry, I can do it in two ways depending on who it is.

Anyone not within my own generation (+/- 6 years) gets told that I'm involved with a group of primarily creative people from all over the world that conglomerate on the internet who are fascinated by animals. Mostly being artists, they like to depict themselves as their favourite animal in anthropomorphic form, use that character to represent themselves on the internet and in artwork, and from time to time attend conventions where they interact socially outside of the internet and raise money for animal protection organizations.

The reaction I receive from this is that it's a rather interesting and admirable thing to do, something fun for my spare time that lets me meet cool people, almost like some sort of artistically expressive vocation rather than the sort of things one would think if I had told them I'd joined a cult.

Anyone closer to my age, however, when they ask why I draw dog people, is told differently. I go right into it as a sort of contemporary art movement. "It's furry", I say, and then I explain it starting from my own reasons, building up to the bigger picture of people around the world doing it rather than portraying it as something more worldly and venerable. These people get told early on that furries come in different format - those who take it very seriously and live their daily lives as animal people, those who like to suit up, those who don't draw and those who do, those who explore it because it's sexy to them, those who get into it because of its open friendly feel, and those who tag along because they think it's cute. I emphasise that it's interpreted very differently by different people, so there's no particular definition to it. I usually leave it to them to figure out how involved I am in it and in what ways.

Some of those people ask more about it after that, and some don't. I think the most awkward moment where I've had to describe furry to someone quickly was when an elderly woman in a hotel elevator asked me why people were wearing tails. I think I managed to inspire her, though.

My closer friends and my siblings know everything; and my parents have the spun slimmed down version that they're fine with. I'm not sure why anyone would want to tell their folks /everything/ about it, unless they're perfectly comfortable with their parents potentially also becoming furries.

All in all, I control what people know about what I do, and I've never had to make a cover story. My parents were once quite happy to fund my trip to Germany to go hang out with the other animal lovers. :)

I don't self identify very strongly as a furry (no community, not an artist) even though I wouldn't deny it. I've never told anyone and Im not very big on TMI. I'm also not so sure how aware people here are about the term, certainly my family would have no idea. My friends know I'm into fuzzy stuff like comics so maybe the more internet-culture-savy ones have made the connection but cartoon nostalgia and comics about animal people are pretty mainstream.

The only time I've heard it mentioned in a coversation was in relation to the XKCD comic but people weren't very interested when I offered to clarify what "I had read" the subculture was about.

my parents think its a disney convention

i think thats safe enough

i dont really have to hide it b/c my work around my classmates is different from my work on fa

don't tell but don't hide it either. never met a fellow furry so there's not that much to tell :p

I told some of my best friends, they make fun of me sometimes but its all playfully. my family couldn't care less about that sort of things, my mom and dad kind of like those sort of things already without knowing how exactly is it called, and I live in a country in wich furry is not known unless you discovered it on the internets.

Only uber-nerds as disconnected from reality as the most extreme furries really care about CSI and all that junk. (And by now anybody with a grain of salt has stopped believing what the traditional media say anyway.)

I say don't worry about that, your art has nothing to do with the ugly fetish stuff which gave furry a bad reputation in the past. If the topic is brought up don't deny you know the fandom but make/join jokes about it happily, show that you understand which parts of it deserve to be laughed at. That's all that most people want really, to make sure you are one of the normal guys and not one of the creeps. In my experience nothing makes a bad impression like a geeky guy awkwardly trying to explain that his weird subculture of choice is Serious Business and is not all about bestility porn etc. Or trying to deny that he knows furries while it is obvious to the people in front of him that he knows them and he's trying to hide something... geek talk and obvious lies are what truly scares people.

hmm...

Well, to close friends, and we are talking the 3 or so outside the fandom, they know I'm Furry and they know about the fandom, and short of the harmless jokes they're cool with it.

When it comes to my family however....No. None of them know, and honestly, short of being forced to tell them, I don't think they ever will. My family is working class and my folks are in their 40s and my grandparents are in their 60s-70s. They kinda saw the decline of the US and are not very open or receptive people.
I went to MFF in 2010 and I used the cover of seeing friends in the Chicago area as cover but my Mom found out, cornered me as I came home from the train station on my front poarch and talked to me, she was cool about it but she didnt know I was a fur.
My Dad however sealed me NEVER telling them when I was standing outside with him while he was having a smoke, he asked me where I was and I told him a Furry con, and I told him it wasn't like CSI or MTV or any of that bullshit and they wern't weird.
He looked at me with cold eyes and told me " Furrys are Weird" and I decided to change the subject and never mention the fandom or the possiblity of me being a part of it to my family again.

I dunno, I guess my siblings wouldnt care either way, but I'd rather not tell them because everything I talk to them about they turn around and tell my folks and I end up getting pulled off into a side room to be talked to usualy with the starting words: " Son, I need to talk to you...."
I suppose it doesnt help that because of me being a fan of Anime when I was in my early teens and having been caught looking at Anime porno, Being part of a fandom with a large sexual element, they would automaticly group me in with that element and...yeah....Easier just to keep it in the dark from them.

What they don't know wont hurt them.

Haha, we kinda had this conversation at FWA. I don't think you could believe me.

I got into furry when I was reaaaally young. Like 11 ish, 12 ish. *cringe* and I remember that halloween I wanted to be a werewolf! I made a tail out of fabric and clotheshangers... it was awful. I would go on furry forums and draw my anime/fursona... My relatives just thought I really liked wolves though, so they would buy me calendars and books about them (which I really enjoyed). I also did ask them to record the furry episode of CSI for me, so I wonder if they put two and two together.

My brother definitely knows I'm a furry. He know's my email, he's seen the safe for works drawing's I've done. He doesn't comment on it though, haha. I don't mind that he does, we just don't talk about it. We don't talk about much, though.

I am pretty much totally open to my friends about it though. Like I will sit there and spell it out for them if they want. "I draw gay furry porn on the internet." Not a single one of my friends have ever recoiled in disgust or anything like that. Even my friends that aren't from art school! They think it's cool that I can make money from my drawings. My peers in art school are always interested to see my pornography, especially girls. And BOY DO I SHOW EM... So yeah, maybe there are whispers behind my back who knows.

I will definitely hide the fact from any future employers, but friends and relatives i think are fine to know i'm in the furry thing.

First rule about fur club. Do not talk about fur club.

I keep it only within the community and I refer to furcons as "art conventions" or "art expos" or something like it. It's true enough.

Professional I don't talk about much of my perfect life. I keep it personal. Certain non-furry friends know if I think they wouldn't mind, but outside of friends and cons, you'd never know.

...and for those bringing up my license plates on the MR2... STFU!

I tell close friends, generally. I was chatting with a roommate of mine yesterday, and he said he was of the opinion that I wasn't furry, but rather that I was a camp-follower. I got into it as a thing to do with friends, and now I have my little writing projects, so I go along with for something to do. This was his analysis.

I usually tell people I'm a "performance artist". Actually, no I don't.

As far as family, not only do my parents know, but somehow I inadvertently converted all of my siblings into furries.

My coworkers, on the other hand, know I draw cartoon animals, and that's about it. They probably wouldn't care about the furry thing, but I won't go out of my way to bring it up.

In high school, I thought it was somehow consequential and told lots of people. My mother and her mother, and my siblings all know. My grandmother actually came back from Mardi Gras with a necklace she'd saved especially for me with large blue cats on it, "For that furry thing."
Nowadays I'm pretty laissez-faire about it. Some folks know, others don't. The only people I specifically avoid telling (they also are the only people who don't know I'm gay) are my dad's family because I'm not ready to risk severing those ties. Occasionally nerves will creep in and I'll remain silent when the topic comes up, but in general I don't think of or treat it as a big deal.
I do say, when I go to FWA, that I'm going to visit my man, but that is because that is the primary reason for the trip (long distance relationship). The convention is just secondary.
Only ever had trouble with one friend being instantly dismissive of anything animal related as being part of my furry thing, but after she watched some guy talking about furries on After Elton she's lightened up and thinks she gets it now (honestly she doesn't, because she makes it out to be some big deal/ something directly correlating to my homosexuality).

I operate on a case by case basis
Tho' I've been getting more lax on my disclosures. I like to send people pictures of stuff I find on here :) art is art

I don't talk about furry or drawing at all in real life or online in association with my real name. If I go to a con, I am attending a "comic convention". But it's more out of politeness than fear that I will be outed as a furfag. If somebody doesn't already know that there's a community of weirdos that like anthros, I'm not going to be the one to break the news.

I used to be concerned that somebody would find out, but now I don't care. There is way weirder shit out there nowadays than furry fandom. If someone happens to find out, which has happened a grand total of once, it was a non-issue.

Hm, skimming the thread... I wouldn't say fetishes is what distinguishes "furry" from funny animals - for me, if there's a reason for me to call my own and others' art "furry" it's got more to do with socio-political aspects and to what degree the species chosen actually matters to whatever plot or message is being delivered. (Id est, if you just picked a dog because dogs are cute, I wouldn't call it furry. If you picked it because the plot required someone who becomes loyal to one person or family above others, and may be hostile with anyone else, you're getting closer. But I digress.)

Hum, my friend circle is all geeks and weirdos who like to dress up in silly costumes themselves, and who see the parellels between fandoms and subcultures... And my parents and siblings take any perceived oddness about my hobbies in stride, as long as it doesn't seem to be getting me in financial or emotional trouble. They might think I'm loopy, but they won't make an issue of it.

...I'd say a furry convention is a science fiction /fantasy convention. What else would you call the theme of sentient non-human animals? I may be reluctant to call myself "furry" out of the blue simply because to me, terms like that are more confusing than they are clarifying (and I'm a bit allergic to narrow categories). But it's a possible device to establish common ground, and when used as such, it works. Bottom line: with potential friends, I say "oh sure I'm furry! You afraid yet?" And grin. And if they get curious, they might be friends to keep. Goes for most of my passions in life really...

Co-workers, college course mates, potential employers and professors with whom I'm not on the same frequency, etc... That's different. I don't tell them I'm such a fervent Sonic fan either. I would probably think twice about it around people I know I may be dependent on, and who I know might dismiss me as unreliable over it. But when asked, I tend to answer.

I don't hide it if someone asks, but I don't advertise it (FURRY PRID3!!!11111), either. To me, it's just something I am interested in, like I am interested in art and music. I don't consider it a lifestyle and take it really seriously like a lot of people do. Not much else to say that hasn't already been said here.

Props to Swatcher.

I have mixed feelings about furries and whether or not I even count as one. There are things about the community I like and things I hate, some of which overlap. So I don't really have the problem of telling people, "I'm a furry" because I don't feel like I'm really a part of the community (yet). I suppose if I met some furs and felt like I was making friends then I might be able to identify more as a furry.

I'm not sure, but my feeling is that the fandom often serves as a veneer for individuals to hide behind. (I'll probably be reamed for this idea). I feel like fursuits are an extension of that. In the end I tend to wonder if we (I'll include myself in this one) aren't all feeling ostracized and have turned to a community that accepts everyone, for better or worse and are participating in escapism here. (And I think all people participate in one form or another). Unfortunately with all of the bad press the community gets, even when hiding behind a computer or inside a fursuit, there are still people out there who want to take furs down a peg. (For instance, I know a lot of cosplayers who think they're better than furries, I think there's so much overlap there that there's no reason for anyone to act superior).

But this has gone way beyond your question.

I guess the final point I want to make, or thing I want to mention, is that I think CSI still haunts furries. Whoever said they thought it had blown over... I don't agree at all. That episode was actually my introduction to furries, it wasn't until many years later that I even heard of them again. I didn't realize that there were so many furs out there. At any rate, if this gives you any clue into CSI's power, my mom still thinks of furries in CSI terms and most people I know who aren't furries, that's what they base their assumptions on.