Well - I've held my tongue for a bit. Trying to make sense of everything. I've read several articles, and I'm impressed that it even made the Rolling Stone. But FUCK - really... with the shit that is going on in the world, we have to start our own shit?!
Now I know I'm new to the fandom, and I may not understand or know a lot of the back stories, but let's me honest... we're already the outcasts of society, but do we really need to make things harder for us?

And let's not even mention things the one running this country has said, done or made certain groups of citizens feel. Why do we have to make things even more hate-filled? It's stupid shit... Early in my journey, I had a co-worker write a letter to some rather important people in the company I work for. They wrote it as a concerned parent, after running across my Instagram profile. In this letter, I was accused of being a pedophile and into hard core yiff groups. Needless to say, I ended up in an investigation room, and when I got home, I wanted to pack away my suit, and be done with it all. I was lucky that I had friends that are non-furry as well as furry ones that talked me out of it. And I'm glad they did.

I've had some interesting conversations with other furries that I have met at conventions, and I don't know what it is, but some of them feel the need to unload their woes. I'm glad they felt comfortable getting it out there, especially if it was something they needed to do. But hearing some of these stories of how other furries didn't accept them because their suit wasn't up to par, it wasn't a professional made suit... whatever reason. When someone compliments me on my suit, which was professionally made for me, I do thank them, But I also compliment them on theirs. It doesn't matter what it looks like. If the kid tells me that it was a second or third attempt at making their suit or head on their own, that's big props from me... Here you have this person who may not be able to afford a suit, but they are talented and creative enough to make their own. For Fuck Sake - give them props... shit, If I had that skill, I would keep working at it, and improving my craft. Why, for the love of God are we going to put them down?

Why can't we be accepting of each other? Why do we have to have these groups that make it harder for others... again, we as a whole are already a community of outcasts. Why not embrace what we have going on? I've embraced the furry side of me, and I don't mind talking about it... if people have questions, I have no problem answering them. I don't appreciate the fact that I do get the "oh, I saw that on NCIS..." all the time. it's just like being gay, those that don't understand are going to stereotype us all into one group. Who the FUCK Cares if you like to have sex in suit... that's your own thing, but that's not all of us. I've met a few that have the murr suits, but they are for the bedroom only - they don't wear them out to conventions. that's not my thing, but I'm not going to condone you for taking part in it.

My thoughts on the Raiders... let's be fucking honest here - they knew exactly what they were doing when those arm band colors were chosen. Seriously, A red arm band with a white circle and a black logo in it... doesn't matter if it's a paw print, a smiley face, heart or any other innocent symbol, it's always going to be associated with the Nazi Party. Now here's a question to ask yourself, would it be a big deal if it was a different color band - let's say, blue band, yellow circle and purple image?
I don't want anyone reading this to take it as if I'm a member of the Raiders or any way shape or form associated with them, or hell, even the Nazi party. I just don't understand why.
This is me voicing my concern, anger, disappointment and confusion. I am saddened that RMFC was canceled. This was my second convention that I attended, and the first one I went to was super family friendly... it was AWESOME - and then to hear of all the drama surrounding RMFC 2016. I had a great time in 2016 - despite having a run in with a raider... but being an outspoken Southern Californian, who is also a bit of hot tempered spit fire, I had no problem telling this person how I felt and to back the fuck off...

I belong to a few different communities - I'm a furry, a gay male, a pup, a leather boy/man, theme park nerd, band nerd and getting into the cosplay world. I have friends in a lot of the same communities, as well as some others. I have friends that are jocks, drag queens, heterosexuals, porn stars, musicians, actors and who knows what else. And we all manage to get a long just fine - sure there are disagreements, there are arguments and there are time I want to punch them in the throat, and I'm sure they want to do the same to me... but when it comes down to it, we fucking love, respect and support each other. Maybe it's because I'm sitting at home binge watching season 7 of RuPaul's Drag Race, but to quote the Queen herself, " If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love someone else?"