Making this about furries is missing the point. As a few posts above point out:
- Anyone concealing their identity will cause other patrons concern. This is true if you're in a fursuit, or if you're in a Halloween mask, or if you're wearing a ski mask, or anything else. Most people who wear ski masks are not bank robbers. That doesn't mean you should be offended about taking of your ski mask before entering a bank. The same principle applies here.
- There is a legitimate concern that a fursuiter will be mistaken for a mascot character hired by the library. That is, in fact, the first assumption that most people will make, as they know what mascots are but not what fursuiters are. This is a liability nightmare for the library, because - just by being in costume - you are assumed to be operating on _their_behalf_. It's understandable that they'll get twitchyh about this.
In a perfect world, you'd have a magical trustworthiness-ometer and let in anyone in costume it gave an "ok" reading for. This is not a perfect world. The path of least hassle for the overworked, underpaid people whose job it is to keep the library running, is to ask people not to wear costumes in the library. This is by far the option with fewest headaches for them. If you ask ahead ahead of time, you might get permission to do a tour in costume, but please don't be offended if they say "no" (or offended if they ask to have a staff member with you at all times). Anything else puts the entire library staff in a very stressful position (having to worry that there might be a creep in your group, having to deal with complaints from patrons even if you're all angels, etc).
Making this about furries is missing the point. As a few posts above point out:
- Anyone concealing their identity will cause other patrons concern. This is true if you're in a fursuit, or if you're in a Halloween mask, or if you're wearing a ski mask, or anything else. Most people who wear ski masks are not bank robbers. That doesn't mean you should be offended about taking of your ski mask before entering a bank. The same principle applies here.
- There is a legitimate concern that a fursuiter will be mistaken for a mascot character hired by the library. That is, in fact, the first assumption that most people will make, as they know what mascots are but not what fursuiters are. This is a liability nightmare for the library, because - just by being in costume - you are assumed to be operating on _their_behalf_. It's understandable that they'll get twitchyh about this.
In a perfect world, you'd have a magical trustworthiness-ometer and let in anyone in costume it gave an "ok" reading for. This is not a perfect world. The path of least hassle for the overworked, underpaid people whose job it is to keep the library running, is to ask people not to wear costumes in the library. This is by far the option with fewest headaches for them. If you ask ahead ahead of time, you might get permission to do a tour in costume, but please don't be offended if they say "no" (or offended if they ask to have a staff member with you at all times). Anything else puts the entire library staff in a very stressful position (having to worry that there might be a creep in your group, having to deal with complaints from patrons even if you're all angels, etc).