The Colorado Furry Community has reported that a member of the local community, Tompla, was sent to the hospital to recover from wounds during the Club Q shooting that occurred in Colorado Springs on the weekend of the 19th of November.

The Club Q shooting has made headlines as the a latest mass shooting event in the United States and left 5 patrons of the club dead in the aftermath. Given that the attack was against an LGBTQ night club and the alleged shooter being the grandson of a Republican politician, there is suspicion of the shooter’s motivations being driven by rhetoric that is hostile against LGBTQ communities.

The investigation is ongoing.

A link to an organization to donate to help the victims was provided on the Colorado Furry Community’s statement.

Gene McGee, the mayor of Ridgeland, a northern suburb of the capital city of Jackson, withheld $110,000 from the Madison County Library System. According to the Mississippi Free Press, the executive indicated he would not release the allocated dollars until the library agreed to purge any “homosexual materials”.

The release of this news had set one particular furry into activist mode. Soatok Dhole, a non-fiction furry writer who covers issues around the fandom, social media, and technology, started a thread on his Twitter account pushing for help from the furry fandom to help bridge the gap in the library’s funding. In it he linked to the library’s fundraiser whose goal was initially a modest $2,500, but has since extended multiple times due to reaching that threshold and beyond.

Can I Pet Your Werewolf? is a 160-page comics anthology that came out in 2017, after a successful kickstarter by Kel McDonald. Recently there was a second kickstarter to make a new print run, so I got in on the PDF version, and my hardcopy should be shipping pretty soon.

The project is described as "A light-hearted anthology featuring tales of friendship, family, and romance shared between those who get hairy under a full moon. Just because they have sharp teeth and claws doesn't mean they have to be a monster out for blood."

There are 13 stories, black and white, from mostly women cartoonists of many backgrounds and art styles. They're short popcorn tales, ranging from 8 to 19 pages in length. Not a lot of time for deep world-building, but in each one you're seeing a personal little snippet of a larger setting.

For the first time in eleven years, Bad Dog Books has added a new anthology title to its popular FANG and ROAR book series. FANG was started in 2005 for adult M/M homosexual erotic short stories, and ROAR appeared two years later as its non-erotic counterpart. Now we're getting CLAW, for adult F/F lesbian erotic short stories. Along with many other titles, CLAW will be released at the FurPlanet table at Anthrocon 2018.

The Species of Blessing Avenue is a collection of short stories by Graveyard Greg, published in 2012.

Even before I got past the introduction, I liked two things about this book. First, it's got a were-lion in its leading role. Second, it was inspired by characters created for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG.

I was warned that I shouldn't have tried to read this as a novella instead of three short stories. I'll try to correct that mistake as I go along with this review.

A gay western centaur romance isn't the kind of story I encounter enough, even in furry fandom. Hotblood! A Centaur In the Old West is a webcomic by Toril Orlesky that ran from 2013-2016. The color artwork is as stark as the landscape, but the story is a bit more complicated than the black-and-white world that the western genre is known for.

The art is lovely enough that I was mostly able to put aside the sometimes uneven pacing. As the story circles around the action, it digs deeper into its characters' pasts - and their hearts. The two main characters are not morally whole men, and therefore they caught my interest.

Rook is a centaur. In the story universe, centaurs are an integrated part of American society. There's some social stigma, but not as much as you might think for someone who looks half-animal. There's at least one centaur in the U.S. Senate, for example. Rook is employed by Asa, a human steel tycoon. We don't get to see much of the world outside of their relationship, and it's only by the second half of the story that we really start seeing the two of them bond, sexually and romantically.

When perusing written news articles about furries written outside the fandom you’ll usually run into the typical faire. Some articles will talk about furries and try and introduce their unknowing audience to what the fandom is. Others will talk about the local convention in town and why the denizens will be seeing all these costumes about. Heck, some will not even be about the fandom at all and will just be using the term to talk about pets or the band Super Furry Animals.

However, 2017 has started off on a very interesting foot as two articles showed up on the feed which don’t take the tired and treaded routes. Both looked at pieces of the fandom and their relationship to the recently inaugurated president, Donald Trump and what he stands for in society in general.

One article from Slate covered a Kyell Gold book and discussed how the virtues with in could counter Trump. The other, from Motherboard, describes another piece of fandom and their alt-right tendencies and pondering if crass anonymity can lead to crass actors acquiring power.

So let’s go over these two articles and what they have to say about furry fandom.

Sometimes resented, but real, there is overlap of different groups that some might call a "furry/gay axis". It brings theories, stereotypes, appreciation and much discussion.

Does it happen in Russia too? Do some Russian furry fans wear rainbows as often as some in North America? Do they fear Russia's anti-gay oppression in current world news? Would they think twice about costuming in public, or holding meets, if they might be charged with illegally spreading information about "non-traditional sexual behavior"?

Is there a place on the web where international furry fans can easily connect with Russian furs to ask about their opinions and experiences?

A historic U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage created intense emotions and record crowds at San Francisco's 2013 Pride celebration. I was informally told the parade drew 1.5 million. Imagine pushing through them in the hot sun with inch thick fur on!

Video by Mallius
For dozens of local furs, the great fun and positive vibes of Pride 2012 were small compared to this year's enthusiastic turnout. If it grows as much in 2014, it'll be awesome to see.

GaymerX is the first gaming convention focused on LGBTQ themes for "gaymers", their allies, and geek culture. On August 3–4 GaymerX will bring contests, parties, panels and more to Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco's Japantown.

Panels at the con include Natural Allies: Furries and Gaymers, by Vulpinfox, and a bear drawing panel hosted by Grisser.

Founder and Director of Technology, Andrew Evans, told me:

Creating a safe space for queer geeks and their allies to come together, discuss their geekiness, hang out and feel safe is super important to the community. We felt like the gaming community wasn't doing enough to bring together queer geeks, which is why we're doing GaymerX and built out GaymerConnect. ["A service that allows you to find queer gamers and allies of every identity who play the same games you do."]

Update: Use code GX13FUR by July 26 for a $10 registration discount. [Latte]

The 42nd anniversary of San Francisco Pride happened this weekend. People from all over the world filled the city to celebrate. It was too large and fabulous for words, so I can only personally comment about fursuiting at some street parties. There was no organized furry event or mission, just a good opportunity to wear a costume.

The last organized furry participation was a float in the 2005 Pride parade, arranged via BAF and its mailing list. (I heard that there was some negligible drama about connecting furries + LGBT, but it stayed internal, with positive reactions elsewhere.) Due to logistics and cost, it hasn't reoccurred.

However, one of the organizers posted on Facebook: "The SF Pride committee bugs me every year to bring the Furries back, and that's just what I am going to do for 2013! That's right, for the 2013 pride parade there will be a Furry float!" (Yay!)

Fusion Magazine, published by Kent State University students for the LGBTQ community, has based its latest issue on furries.

The coverage begins with a six-page profile of the fandom featuring Robby Conte (Robbyfox) and other NE Ohio furs.

Robbyfox describes his introduction to the fandom, his trip to Anthrocon 2010, and favourably compares furry fandom to the gay community, which he describes as 'more intimidating'.

The article then gives an overview of fursuiting and a dismissive mention of Vanity Fair, before diving into quotes from sociological researcher Dr. Kathy Gerbasi, a description of a local furmeet and a sub-interview with ObliviousAlly.

In issue 4 of the Furtean Times, I announced my "Furry Sexuality Survey" - the first survey solely dedicated to the one issue that appears time and time again for us furries and media representations of the fandom. Well, the results are in - thanks to the 192 people who took part.

Before I reveal them, I understand that there have been one or two complaints about the survey. For example, I heard that people complained about when I asked the gender of the people answering their gender, that they augured over the fact that I only included two answers (male and female) and that this would therefore be unfair towards people who were transgender, pangender and so forth. I would like to apologise towards everyone who has brought up issues, and will act upon them if I do another survey at some other time in the future.

Repentent Republicans vote for Gay Penguin in 2004!

True, this nonaligned, amphibious alternative to conventional choices for President may be incapable of abstract thought. Then again, his inability to sign documents would ensure an absence of policies such as job outsourcing, the Iraq War, and a constitutional amendment defining marriage. See Gay Penguin's public stances on these and many other issues in this cleverly done satirical piece.

"Gay Penguin 2004. Because he's not Bush."

Trickster

Among other events in celebration of "Warm May", the city of Zurich is conducting hour-long tours at their zoo focusing on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

Full story at Swissinfo, here