I was listening to Dan Savage's latest podcast episode and learned about a phenomenon I had never heard of — Christian furries. They are furries who identify as Christian and want to evangelize to the furry community — which is widely known to be secular and LGBTQ-friendly — but also feel scared about being outed to the furry community as anti-gay evangelical Christians. Additionally, they fear being outed as furries to their Christian communities. Religion News Service recently published an article about the phenomenon of Christian furries, which discusses these dilemmas:
Christians in the furry community are cautious about who knows about both their furry and faithful selves. Christian furries interviewed for this story, including leaders of the group that calls itself the Christian Furry Fellowship, asked to be anonymous, fearing "doxxing" from within the largely secular furry community for their Christian identity and ostracization from their professional lives for their furry hobby.
"My furry friendships are a blessing," said one CFF organizer with a red fox fursona who asked to be called "F." "And for that reason, I am sad to see so much grief within the fandom that could be helped by the knowledge of the Lord."
However, with the rise of anti-furry sentiment and action by right-wing Christian parents—Daily Beast published an article earlier this year called "Furry Panic is the Latest Dumb GOP Attack on Public Schools," which discusses how "right wing parents are attacking school boards over 'furries' in the classroom, a proxy for the larger culture wars over race and gender—Dan Savage has a very clear message to these Christian furries:
Look, evangelical furries: You have a problem, and it's not the gays. People who hate gays and lesbians, they think you're a bunch of perverts, too, and unlike me they use 'pervert' as an insult. Look, I get the impulse. You want them—fellow evangelical conservative Republican Christians—you want them to make an exception for you. You're like swingers in red states with Trump flags on their golf carts or log cabin Republicans who think wearing a tie and voting for the same assholes mommy and daddy do will persuade people to overlook cocksucking when they do it. They're not gonna make an exception for log cabin cocksuckers and they're not gonna make an exception for you, Jesus furries. Recognize who your REAL enemies are: They're not gays in fur suits at the cons. They're assholes sitting next to you in the pews.