You should probably just skip this journal altogether.

Surprise! There's been a couple months of drama in our local furry group.

I'm skipping over the incidents that lead to the current state of affairs. Quite frankly, there were many failings on the part of everyone involved. There is no one bad guy in this.

Here's the dumbed-down version, using aliases (which I would prefer we use in this journal):

- 'Garth,' our former organizer, rage-quit over people not getting along with his buddy 'Bob,' & named 'Jimmy' his successor
- Months later, after a major blow-up, Jimmy banned Bob from the group

I am leaving out a crapton of stuff here. Remember--many failings, no one bad guy.
This isn't about the blow-up.
This is about how certain parties reacted & behaved afterwards.

Garth announced the blow-up across several online groups, including this one. Jimmy made one post --one-- in response to provide his side of the story. Since then he has kept himself out of the clusterfuck of emails and posts. For months Jimmy has said he doesn't want to hear about what the others are saying about him, he doesn't want anything forwarded or related to him, he doesn't want to waste another moment talking or thinking about the whole mess. Jimmy has abdicated being the organizer of the local furry group. He just wants to hang out with friends & focus on the positive.

Meanwhile, Garth, Bob, & a couple of their pals have been announcing that Jimmy is a pedophile.

Jimmy was dating 'Leon,' who is 17 years old, before this incident. Jimmy broke it off as a direct response to threats to notify the police--not out of concern for himself, but how being publicly outed would affect Leon (Leon is still in the closet, his family are strict fundamentalists). Garth & Bob's side have not only been telling people that Jimmy is a pedophile for dating Leon, but also that failure to report a known felony makes you an accessory to a crime (which is true--except that nobody can prove that Jimmy & Leon were doing anything more than holding hands & cuddling).

I do not want any side-debate in this journal over what constitutes as pedophilia, the legality of dating a 17-year-old, homosexuality, age of consent, etc. That's not the point.

HERE is the point: Jimmy & Leon started dating several weeks before the blow-out. This was known by Bob & Garth, et al, beforehand -- and they didn't start talking about pedophilia until Bob got kicked out.

FURTHERMORE, another local furry couple with a similar age difference have been dating for three and a half years; the youngest is now 19. Go on, do the math. Yet over the years there has been no hue & cry over pedophilia or being accessory to a crime for not reporting it.

AND HERE'S THE TOPPER: Garth himself has been openly cuddling a 16-year-old (who's a sweet gal & doesn't deserve to be drawn into this), and oddly enough none of his friends who are so concerned about pedophilia seem to mind.

Jimmy has stayed out of the drama as much as possible. He's trying to move on. And 5 days ago, one of Garth & Bob's faction called Jimmy by name & stated he was a pedophile in someone else's journal here on FA.


In case this isn't clear enough for you: these people are willing to destroy not one but two people's lives, because of being banned from a local furry group.


So now I try not to hang out with those people, because they say they are completely justified in what they're doing. But along with being very disappointed & angry at the actions of a scant handful of people, I also miss them. There is a big difference between calling someone's decisions or behavior bad or wrong, and saying someone IS bad or wrong. I don't think they get that. I don't know if they even want to acknowledge that such a difference exists. They seem to subscribe to the "If you're not 100% for me, then you're 100% against me" mindset. And that's a disappointment to me, too.

But is it too much to ask that they just leave Jimmy the hell alone? They're so hell-bent on proving how WRONG Jimmy is & how RIGHT they are that they've sacrificed a few good friendships (and IMHO, some sense) along the way.