Furries. 

If you’ve watched the news in the past few years, you’ve definitely heard about furries and the rumors about litter boxes in schools for people who identify as animals. However, while I have yet to see a litter box, I have definitely seen furries. While some identify as a Furry with only drawing animal characters, others take it to more extremes and dress up and act like animals, and if you disagree with their “animal” identity, then you’re accused of being transphobic. 

This is a blatant lie, and I think some Furries ruin the LGBTQ+ name. Some news stations and politicians think that a good majority of the LGBT community are Furries, and nothing is farther from the truth. The truth is that furries misconstrue the real meaning of LGBT, and, I mean, it’s literally impossible to identify as an animal. 

“I identify as an attack helicopter.” “I identify as a penguin.” Both news anchors and politicians use these examples to make fun of people who are transgender, but what they fail to see is that the people that actually identify as penguins are completely different from actual transgender people. 

Being transgender is an umbrella term to describe people who are not comfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth. They can be female to male, male to female, or just identify as a separate gender, like someone who is non-binary. 

However, the new epidemic of Furries can make it seem like transgender people are people who want to identify as cats and dogs. I’ve seen a lot of Furries who walk around with animal tails and get mad if you don’t respect their “identity,” but all they’re doing is making a fool of real trans people. Real trans people actually still identify as humans, not animals. However, some furries get so aggressive with their new “identities” that it wipes out what being trans actually stands for. 

To be honest, I feel like furries are more serious about letting people know their “identites” than actual trans people. They’re like the boy who cried wolf. They need attention so bad that they take it from the people who really need it, and so the people that really are trans are targeted when politicians go after furries. 

Additionally, it’s impossible to identify as an animal. It makes sense when somebody might want to change their gender because men and women both still have basic human traits like two legs, hair on the head, and they communicate in the same way. However, a dog or cat is in no way similar to a human. Being transgender works because gender is a human construct, and you just want to change your position in the human race based on social norms, not your whole entire species and cell makeup. I doubt anybody is looking in the mirror and feeling heavy distress because they don’t look like a wolf. People who identify as furries usually use it to cover up mental health disorders or use it to provide them comfort, and that’s okay, but they shouldn’t be claiming it’s a real identity. Even if somebody wanted to become an animal, there is no probable way to change your whole genetic makeup to become a dog, you can only modify your body with makeup and plastic surgery. 

All in all, there can be understandable reasons why somebody would want to identify as a Furry, but when somebody tries to enforce the fact they are actually an animal, that’s where the harm comes in. All it does is ruin the name for the LGBTQ+ community and prove that it is impossible to actually become an animal.