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1 Year Ago: Hindsight is 2020 — Top 20 furry news stories of last year

“Covid-kun is a new coronavirus mascot from Thailand who teaches kids to wash their hands and social distance.” — @mondomascots (from There’s a Mascot for That? Cute COVID-19 Education.)

It was a multi-headed monster of a year of disasters. But here you are. Have a review of last year’s news from Dogpatch Press. These are highlights for this site and they’re not listed by biggest or most-viewed, it’s a mixed bag of big stories plus inside stuff only a fandom knows.

(1) Kicking ass and giving hugs — The Furry Karate Hero who stopped an assault at Fur Con.

January 2020: at the Further Confusion convention in San Jose. A car pulls up near furries mingling by the hotel. Inside there’s a domestic violence fight… and a regular Everyfur leaps to rescue a passenger. He lands on the front page of CNN! The year was off with a bang.

Who knew it would be one of the last times for normal fun? Remember being together for fursuiting and parties? This story wasn’t staged, it captured furries in their natural element. They’re so online, but they thrive on the street and in the spotlight. This story should come with action figures.

(2) Campaigning for the furry vote — Furries for Bernie and Joe Biden will bring furries back to the White House.

It was a historic US election year. Fandom can matter for that just like it can for your whole life. Personally I saw how seamless it can be. One night I left a raging dance party and brought a carload of furries to crash at my place. 5 hours later, we woke up for a Bernie Sanders rally down the street. I could have never taken off my fursuit. Suiting at the rally got me pulled into a photo with Shahid Buttar, who ran for Congress vs. Nancy Pelosi.

Back in 2014, Obama did a photoshoot with a fandom creator on the White House lawn. What a contrast from the fur-helmeted “QAnon Shaman” invading with a terrorist insurrection this year. Now Biden will make it a place with pets and art again.

“My recognition of the value of furries, my recognition of the value of subcultures generally is rooted in my own identity as an artist,” says Buttar, adding that countercultural groups have pushed progressive political ideas into the mainstream throughout history. “It’s not just furries—anyone who’s willing to raise their voice and be creative, artists, are the lifeblood of our community and our culture writ large.”

— (KQED) A Secret Weapon of the Progressive Left: Furries

(3) Cons go online — With conventions closed for COVID-19, what happens to furries as a community? and How will furries get their kink on?

As a giant rat myself sometimes, if rats were spreading a plague I could have covered it more. But I didn’t want to overdo the gloom. Try stories elsewhere about where the parties went, like this bonkers take on the Trump campaign’s death stage: Four Seasons Total Landscaping becomes a VRChat hangout for furries.

VRChat had something less memed and more meaningful. Changa lives with the founders of the first con, and he created a Furry Family Ofrenda (memorial to all fandom members who have died.) It raised a sensitive topic: should black sheep go in it? I told Changa yes in my opinion, because death equalizes all.

(4) Big support for indie art — $14,000 and $15,600 fursuit auctions and Q&A with “Very surprised and very grateful” fursuit maker Beauty of the Bass.

Art is the foundation of the fandom and its unique fursuit industry. Commercial costumes can’t match fandom suits. The Dealers Den is the leading place for auctioning them. Indie success for these always makes good news.

(5) It’s more than money — 2020: A year of loss — Fundraising and fursuiting for charity in the midst of a global pandemic — by Joe G. Bear

Furries are big charity supporters who donate millions over time. Every year, thousands go to ALS charity in Dogbomb’s name.

(6) The fun heart of fandom — Looney Tunes gets a reboot: How an iconic cartoon forged a wacky and lovable side of the furry fandom — By Rocky Coyote

(3 Parts.) This could be about any show, when stuff we love will always make a place for fans to express themselves.

(7) These nerds are cool too — Monster Force Zero movie and Interview with a Sleestak, the scaly monster that stalks the streets of Portland!

Good things come from overlapping interests. It’s cool when outsiders add furries to their thing, or something emerges without knowing we already do that.

(8) Furry stays weird while the media warms up — Help, my fursona’s dick is on national TV!

Any notice from the mainstream can make backlash about old news and sellout paranoia. But it’s been a while since the media simply treated furries like freaks. Now there’s quality reporting, and looks at loveable eccentrics with “laughing with you, not at you” warmth. Weird power keeps resistance to commercializing.

John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight worked that way. It featured a furry tweeting to racists, asking them to look at his Knotted Otter Cock (say that 5 times fast.) John looked. Some furries got mad at him for looking. Racists stayed the worst. That otter’s tweet worked beyond his wildest expectations. Thanks, The Media!

It was John’s second time after the rat porn. He’s going down his F-list for news.

(9) No place for hate — Worst Year Ever gives the best look ever at furry antifascists and How a chain of violent hate incidents links to furry fandom

They’re cute, cuddly and nobody’s doormats. Other communities praise this one for not compromising with nazi hate. Which helps the targets and future ex-nazis. This situation got a look from a supergroup of lefty journalists and their podcast Worst Year Ever. It was established to cover the insanity of 2020, but a surprise pandemic made their furry dive the most “real” one. Their investigation made some of the best reporting ever.

(Show Part 1 — and Part 2 with a shoutout to Dogpatch Press at 4:00 for piles of sources and people to interview.)

They found sources I didn’t know, but being one of theirs came from years of coverage here about concrete ties to outside hate groups in FBI docs, mainstream news, and group chat logs. The link here ties it together.

(10) Furries for progress worldwide — Q&A with Jeanwoof; Protests in Poland “a premonition for what will happen” if LGBT rights are lost in the USA

If furries join a cause, they get outsized power from talent and diversity. They have robust networks of decentralized support. And they have power to pair a message with art, even if it’s an NSFW scene of an anthropomorphic femboy husky blowing a blushy jock rottweiler. It’s truly impressive. In Poland, the artist Jeanwoof used her skills to benefit an uprising for women’s rights.

That’s half the list.

Come back soon for the rest!

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