I think most furries are bi, not gay. But guys who are bi tend toward other guys, for a variety of cultural reasons, and most furries are guys, which makes it seem like furry fandom is gay.

Yes, my good simbalion, we'll be talking about this and more. (:

This one actually can be answered by the Founder's Effect. Because the first furry cons were advertised to the California gay bars, the first furries (in a larger, self controled space, as opposed to a furry room party at a science fiction convention) we're gay.

No, that does not explain it. Most of the furry fandom found the furry fandom through the internet, long after the original congoers were old and grey.

Has there ever been an actual poll to determine the percentage of those who are gay in the furry community?

I'm not denying that it definitely appears as if this is the case, but there is also the fact that since the furry community has always been rather open to gays, you might merely be seeing more gays being open and vocal about their sexuality here, as compared to non-gays; giving it the impression of a majority.

The popularity of female characters, particularly in adoptables and many predatory/dominant encounters, suggests that there are a lot of non-gay males in the furry community.

If gays are in fact the majority in the furry community, a lot of that can possibly be attributed to a dissatisfaction of who they are in real life. Escapism to being some other animal species can manifest in not only not wanting to be human, but also in not wanting to be constrained to the male/female dichotomy of relationships. Even with the growing acceptance of gays in everyday life, it's still much easier and safer to explore sexual options under the guise of being a furry, than it is to do so in real life.

Of course, we'd still need to see the actual numbers before making any real conclusions. Just what percentage of the furry community is gay, as compared to the general population? And how do these numbers carry out across various countries, where being gay can be either more or less accepted by the general population, from one country to the next?

I know there have been a small handful of 'official surveys on the matter, from 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2015. There does seem to be a lot of variance between what was found in them, but collating data based on people's answers the results come to;

28% to 51% claiming heterosexuality
14% to 25% claiming homosexuality
37% to 52% claiming bisexuality
3% to 8% claiming other frm of sexual preference

So yeah, it's a li'l hard to pinpoint exact precise percentages on each field, but it's worth noting even when the results had heterosexuality in the majority (51%) that still leaves a significantly higher percentage of homo, bi, and other sexualities than tends be reported on average outside the furry community.

Thanks for this comment! Would you be so kind as to source those numbers? I assume this is going off of Furscience, but 28-51% is such a huge margin that I'd like to see what individual years have to show us.

My first mindfuck on this subject was learning that the majority of porn submitted to FA was hetero and not gay. But interestingly enough, the most popular porn from the same data to be dominantly m and m/m subjects.

Admittedly my own comment is quoting numbers from another summary, but their sources were;
http://www.furcenter.org/pubs/SF_2008.pdf
https://sites.google.com/site/anthr.....ry-survey-2011
https://studyf3.livejournal.com/1383.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2013090.....finaldraft.PDF
Hope that helps!

Very much so. Thank you again!

I'd wonder if its a chicken/egg scenario. Does the furry community attract queer people, or did queer people shape a space in the furry community where they were welcome? I dont have hard data, just experience.

I dont remember where I heard this, but it always stuck with me. The identity aspect of the furry community is tied less to the idea of being an animal, but more to the idea of being not human. Its a space where you can make an alternate persona that has queer affectation and is able to act on a sexual/romantic drive with no fear of societal implications.

You could call that escapism, sure, but that implies a denial of reality. I think of it as permitting ones self to temporarily slip into an established framework of visuals and languages without all the baggage of "real life" i.e. the framework we live in behind our fuzzy masks.

Another way to think of it is: how many furries do you know whose fursona has parents that disapprove of their life, or a community that shames them for who they love?

Even though a lot of early furry porn was heteronormative, what I try to keep in mind is that, like queer cultures, furry came from a sense of otherness. "Those scifi weirdos are something, but they aren't weird like us!"

As I recall, the first big gay swing in the art happened about the time FA was founded- I think because a lot of FA's initial userbase came from Y! gallery.

May 10, 2006. http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Y!Galler.....opomorphic_Art

Y!Gallery actually listed FA as the place for their users to go post their furry art, if they weren't experienced enough for the VCL yet!

"As alternatives to posting anthropomorphic art here, Fur Affinity is now up and functioning and has a great, friendly staff. VCL is also available for more experienced artists and Fanart Central allows original characters as well as fan-furs. All of these sites also allow adult artwork, including intersexual (hermaphrodite) and female artwork, so your creativity won't be limited"

I like the way you put that and it's a theory I find relateable.

One simple reason.

Prison rules.

No Woman = Make due.

Never heard this as "Prison rules" so much as "jailhouse gay", which is another thing I hope we get to expand upon!

I think it's because in the early days of furries there were a lot of frat boy type parties. Ergo-- lots of gay (or bi-curious) dudes coming out of the closet. And that just sort of carried down to today.

im gay

im gay

I'm 100% bisexual and 120% gay. ;)

The openness to sexuality is a big part of the culture, and I've seen its effect on myself. Before joining I was strictly hetero and only considered monogamous relationships as "real". Now I've kind of evolved into the mindset of anyone should be able to have a relationship in whatever form that takes with whomever they want. Whatever makes them happy.

There is an amazing site for statistics, called "Furry Research Project". At the moment the site seems to be down, but I'm posting a link anyway.

http://www.furryresearch.org/findin.....1-orientation/