^THIS

Thats a good idea, I have never been to a con, or had sex anyway xD but i'll take your word for it on there. dont even know what a panel is huh.

One thing i have wondered is why cons weren't 18 and olders, i have seen some videos and i gotta tell yah. it looked pretty scarey.

Well, as long as you're having sex safely, more power to you! I don't mean to shame furries for being sexually expressive at all, it's just when they start having uninformed, unsafe sex behind closed doors... that's what shouldn't be happening but still does.

Yah i understand yah

I'LL GO TO IT IF YOU DO, you ray of sunshine

but no do it

Sounds urgent, if this is true of cons :0 massive HIV scares?? I had no idea this were going bumping AND unprotected under the covers.

Yeah there was an HIV scare at a con in Florida not long ago. I dunno if that happens a lot, I've never stuck around a con for the late night parties.

I think that was a troll that started a rumor, but despite that - I have a feeling the current generation has tuned out of the safe sex thought process in many ways.

Curious on your thoughts on that point.

I mean compared to the 60s and 70s we're definitely much more safe about sex, but we could do much, much better at being safer.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an HIV scare at that Orlando convention. Don't they have a sex tent? The first one I went to had a sex tent without a bowl of condoms. :P

I was at a con that had a safe sex panel - I stuck my head in 10 minutes after it was supposed to start. There were 3 people in the room. two presenters and one bored looking guy in the audience.

I always take mass quantities of condoms to cons, and even have a badge offering them for free. I think in the last two times I have done this, I have had mebbe 5 or 6 ask for some.

Sex happens at all cons, its just that furries and the media, and the public, seem more obsessed with it as a talking / fault / media point about furries. When I have been to cons where it was a driving theme to begin with.

When I lived back east, there is a con that is specifically 21 and over, no exceptions. It is very adult, but nothing sleezy in the halls except for brief nudity here and there.

Furry tries to clean up its "perceived" image by desperately wanting it to be PG-13 or better, but its monkey on its back is the fact that most adults in the fandom want it to be adult. Im not talking sex in the elevators adult, but at least not try to whitewash what it is and anesthethisize the sleeze out of it.

Yeah, I mean I'm totally prepared for that. Furries are a one-trick kind of pony; if you're not a MURRFAMOUS furry writer or artist presenting a panel on your fiction or hyper art, good luck gathering a large group of people in one room for an hour. Either way, I don't expect a full crowd. Even with non-furries that would be the case (and it has been the case for my other condom handouts/safe-sex seminars).

Let me straighten this out before it gets misunderstood: I'm not trying to sexshame furries by any means. I'm about as pro-sex as they come and, if you ask any of my friends, they would probably insist that I'm more forward sexually than they are. My biggest concern is that people my age don't have the proper sexual ed to have safe sex, nor are they any viable options for furries to obtain rubbers at conventions unless they bring a box themselves. <-- A very wise move on your behalf, sir.

FWA claimed to be "PG-13" when my best friend stopped by on Friday. Of course he didn't have a badge, so I couldn't complain TOO much when they stopped us. Either way, being in drag isn't a good enough reason to kicked out when your package is tucked properly and when your "cleavage" is covered by a burka. There are furries walking around in fetish gear (and go them for being bold enough!) along with half-dressed men (but not so much women?), so what's the big deal? I don't think a safe-sex panel would be hard to start, it would just be hard to entertain the masses with such serious information. Could furries take it seriously, I wonder?

Well, there could be a president if they did that to someone who is not just in drag, but IS under professional advisement for a gender Identity issue, and pulled out a discrimination suit on them. This of course is null if they were asked to leave because they were not badged in areas requiring a badge.

Would it have been different if they were badged?

Regardless, Anyone doing a safe sex panel should not get a raised eyebrow for trying. Im a greymuzzle, and things like STDs for my generation with HIV and everything else, was much a concern. I think a lot in the current generation are not paying attention enough to consider the risks, and like you, I partially blame the educational system - but I also put most blame the parents. Parents are where the buck stops. Our puritan roots still run deep, and by rote we follow them when it gets to some topics, and even many progressive parents have a hard time discussing things like sex and sexual things with their kids, much less safe sex.

Furries are good at drama and fear mongering (like the last few rounds of - at (x) con, 400 furries got AIDS from one guy, that they saw posted by some unknown - prolly a trollish idiot. At any rate, it is a real concern and I am all for your attempt to make it go at one.

If they could take it serious, hard to tell. The new generation of furries is a lot different from the one I came from, and I love their absorbtion of it, but much of what they like and what draws them in at the same time makes me an outsider anymore. So I could not give you an answer there on how serious they would take it.

Considering FWA had a BDSM panel, something on safe sex shouldn't be too hard to get on the ballet and would a great thing for anyone (furry or not).

Thank you! That's what I was telling a friend over the phone. I mean, I've held safe sex seminars for folks at my college, so it isn't like this is something I don't have experience with. I feel like it's a valid cause to expose people to diseases BEFORE they catch them.

Erh, well, I mean the harm that these diseases and infections can do to your body.

I feel like doing it on Friday at mid/late afternoon would be the best time. Then maybe have pamphlets/free condoms available somewhere else? I feel like having access to condoms would probably get way more people to use them. I remember watching a video/reading a story that at bear runs it's totally common for the staff to provide condoms to attendees.

Yes a 1000 times yes.

What's sex?

So says the one who brings more condoms to cons than I do.

moukke!!!

so many tricks hidden up that innocent-looking sleeve. next yer gonna tell me you're actually a yakuza boss.

well, part of me says there should be an age limit to the handing out condoms, but at the same time, if a bitch is gonna bone, they better wrap their shit.

I think its a good idea, I don't know how most furries will perceive it since most will think your trolling or get offended then see its a serious reach to the populous. Furries like to jump to conclusions like that. Like me doing so right now heh.

In the end though, I think its a fantastic idea, only good would come out of it. I just hope it doesn't get age restricted. It should be an open forum and as long as who ever aranges it does so professionally, I think it would go over well.

I don't agree with that. When I was in high school, they offered condoms to folks in all grades, meaning the 9th graders (aged 13-14-15) could obtain condoms just as easily as the seniors (aged 17-19). I don't think an age limit should matter furry conventions considering that the vast majority of attendees are adult males.

I'm not too concerned if they perceive it as trolling. I am, however, concerned with coming off as "sexshaming". That wouldn't be the goal of this; instead, I am saying SEX IS HEALTHY, just be safe about it. Have some condoms!

I really hope it wouldn't be turned into an 18+ panel :\ There's no reason for that, you know? If people want to be informed about STDs, it shouldn't matter what age they are.

I would be all for this, but it would be politicized somehow, and not enough people would take this panel seriously.

Though, I really think it would be cool to have some semi-intellectual panel about how depictions of sex in furry art may lead to the normalization of behaviors that easier allow for the transmittance of STIs. I'd so do a survey to see if there was any correlation between those things, because I seriously suspect there is a direct relationship between witnessing furry porn and a set of behaviors. For example, touching people, snuggling strangers, sexually harassing both men and women, and so on.

Yeah, well, anything can be politicized when it comes down to it, but that isn't a valid enough reason to not at least try and inform a small group of people about STIs. I understand your point, though.

You know what, though, you have a really good point. There is all of this creampie porn and whatnot, so I wonder if furries (our age especially) who don't have much knowledge regarding STIs are taking influence from furry art and applying it to their own sex life? I mean, it's the same way with gay porn, as well. That's why there has been such a fit about bareback/raw porn, lately, as it tends to normalize the act of unsafe sex between anonymous partners.

I mean furry gay porn and regular gay porn are pretty similar in many aspects, and I think feminist readings of the latter can certainly apply to the former.

A+ idea but in all honesty the sad thing is I feel like most furries won't care enough to get educated even if there is information freely available (I mean really how many idiots do we have to link to letmegooglethatforyou on a daily basis?). I feel like most people go to cons these days with the partybro mindset and are going to be more interested in getting fucked up and/or getting laid (or at least the people that need to be informed) than actually sitting down to get informed on how STDs are an incredibly real threat to anyone at a con doing anything with anyone unprotected.

Thanks, but like I just told :userhipstar:, I don't think someone "not caring" is a valid enough reason to not at least try. It's true, though, and people like to deny that we're all (in fact) horny fucking adults with penises and vaginas that need pleasure. FURRIES HAVE SEX, GUYS, even if it's not the kinky stuff you see on the internet.

This does bring up another question, though: seeing that furries are concerned with attending parties and getting wasted, what timeframe would be best for a panel like this? To try and bring in the highest number of attendees?

Definitely not a bad idea. Hell, I wish we could have a nationwide safe sex panel for the general American public.

Yeah... it's a shame. The Georgia public school system started abstinence programs sometime when I was in grade school and that is one of the major reasons why the graduating class before mine (in high school) had a HUGE hiv scare. Agggh.

It is. Mississippi is among the top states in the US for teenage pregnancy and STD rates. Good thing I'm picky with whom I have sex with.

It's a nice idea but I think the truth of the matter is that the people that don't know any better wouldn't go, it's a sorta self fulfilling prophecy. That said it's worth a try for something as important as this, maybe it'll do some good? At EF they had handouts on the matter, so maybe that's an easier place to start than an entire panel?

Maybe, that is also a possibility. I don't think that worrying about people not attending is a valid enough reason to not hold one, but I was also thinking that after holding a panel like this, me and my partner-in-crime for the panel would walk around the con and hand out the rest of the condoms that we bring to everyone attending? Well, at least to anyone interested in grabbing some. Yeah, handouts are definitely a great idea, but for furries? I'm not so sure if they would actually read through them.

If they don't take a panel seriously, why would they take a piece of paper with serious information on it seriously? ;) Although it would be cool to have a furry artist create a cute one with little characters getting warts and stuff.

This sounds like an awesome idea! I was at a well-attended panel at an LGBT leadership convention and I actually learned something! I even used my knowledge of how to make a dental dam with a condom to help out a lesbian friend of mine trying to instigate a bathroom hookup the next weekend!

I think people would come if the description in the guide is raunchy. "How to take 5 DICKS AT ONCE (safely!)"

Cons are obviously very sex-positive places. Why not also be safe-sex-positive places?

I'd totes be interested in trying to get a panel going at AC. Additionally, the safe-sex part could also be made into a general sex Q&A and sex toy panel. I'm sure that perhaps some sex toy store in Pburgh would be interested in coming and get a kick out of it. ...Though, perhaps that's too non-PG-13. :C

(additionally, hey! I haven't talked to you for a while! How's life?)