Dogpatch Press

Collaborative guest post submitted by Ash and edited by Patch O’Furr. Ash is a bunny, propagandist, and performance artist in Austin, TX. After you read, please vote for the Ursa Major Awards for the best furry creations of last year. Please consider the Fur And Loathing podcast for Nonfiction, featuring investigation by Dogpatch Press.

Extreme times

Lone Star Fur Con picked the right place for a furry convention. Austin has always been a haven for the freaks and weirdos of Texas. The timing is a little bit less than ideal, because furries are now in the crosshairs of reactionaries in the state government.

The convention is at Holiday Inn Midtown, a stone’s throw from the bus station shown in the opening scene of Slacker, the 1991 movie that helped spark the 1990’s independent film movement. Austin has spawned counterculture staples like Eeyore’s Birthday (an annual citywide party for 60 years), the Armadillo World Headquarters, and counterculture-turned-gentrification staples South by Southwest or ACL Fest. Austin has touted its slogan of “Keep Austin Weird” and cashed in on it in equal measure. It has been no stranger to controversy or moral panic about queer issues; Leslie Cochran, a former trans activist and politician, has a day named after him by the city and is considered the personification of “Keep Austin Weird”.

It’s been 20 years since furries ran their own con in Austin. In 2004, Texas Furry Con launched its first and last event. It was officially sponsored by Shiner Bock Beer, and a target of “infiltration” by the Something Awful forum, achieving mainstream crossover at both the most and least friendly extremes.

In 2025, we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it; but some people refuse coexistence to the point of official government oppression. Texas senate just introduced the hoax-fueled F.U.R.R.I.E.S. act, “an attack on roleplaying as a form of expression” that is “deeply reminiscent of the Satanic Panic that gripped the nation in the 80s” (Rascal News.) Texas governor Greg Abbott piled on by naming furries in the same breath as trans people, as a pretext to defund public education.

Weeks before the political news, Lone Star Fur Con’s launch was successful and large for a first time con, with over 800 members attending. They raised four thousand dollars for their charity.

Setting itself apart from other conventions that support animal causes, their charity was Queertopia: a local non profit dedicated to outreach to LGBTQ homeless people. Events organized to fundraise for the con included camp cleanups and packing hygeine supplies, while pumping the funds directly to the most vulnerable. The partnership wasn’t just one-way. One congoer named Cy said Queertopia helped them with vocal training at the con, adding “I think resources like this are very important for this community to have access to in these times.”

Austin may not ask to be a bellwether, but that’s the effect of being a punching bag for government reactionaries, and mined for fodder by alt-right media trolls. Texas governor Greg Abbott effectively declared open season on its residents with the pardon of Daniel Perry. In 2020, the far-right former Army sergeant ran a red light, drove into a crowd of protesters against police brutality, and immediately shot one, Garrett Foster. Perry was convicted for the murder, and then exposed for a history of violent and racist messages, sexually preying on minors, and owning a FurAffinity account that attracted fellow furry hatemongers to post support for his crime. The politically-motivated pardon was denounced across the country. (Dogpatch Press reports: original story and Daniel Perry tag.)

Extreme hopes

Furry groups in Austin have not been insulated from national culture war and political controversy internally. 5 years ago, one of the popular event organizers was outed as a devout neo-nazi, splintering them apart. What does a con mean in such a place?

Lone Star Fur Con’s chair, Mango, says: “We are hopefully going to bring a spark of community that the rest of the Austin and Central Texas furry community can take to heart and make into a larger, more vibrant flame.”

This goal prompts the question: how to kindle that spark with two panel rooms, a game room, a dealer’s den, and an artist’s alley? Member DJ Perrito says: “It would have to embrace the diversity and culture of the city, especially the ‘Old Austin’ — making sure it goes beyond the traditional ‘Keeping Austin Weird’ slogan people throw around”.

Lone Star Fur Con logo: It’s a bat, but it’s Texas! Austin is known for its bat colony.

Supplementing the trans and BIPOC meet ups are discussions on soda, dissertations on Batman being a furry, bad movies, and pickles. Eccentric, at times rule breaking, and weird from the heart.

A con means different things to different people. It’s a time to party, to show off, to learn, to meet friends, to relax. All of the above and more. But what does it mean now, when furry is growing and has become a queer boogeyman for reactionary movements? What does it mean to be furry, when the queer civil rights movement is on the defensive? Can we continue to pretend to be apolitical? To be apart from our fellow LGBTQ people?

There’s been a lot of discussion about the charities that cons support. With some people wanting to support more material organizations and help gain traction with causes in the area. This has reflected a change in furry culture as a whole, from being a niche subculture to a very vocal and vibrant part of the queer community. Organizers who started out in their 20’s as college kids back in the 2000’s now have years, if not decades of experience under their belt. It’s time for them to apply those skills to the mainstream, and to the community at large as well.

Consider the cost of doing nothing, when conventions now include a risk of having artists detained by ICE if they cross borders for cons. Congressmen in other states are taking steps to defund colleges if they have furry clubs, and right-wing media is pushing hateful propaganda like the debunked litterbox hoax, while threatening ambushes on camera at our events. You can prepare now or be taken by surprise.

In a midcentury Holiday Inn in central Texas there was a furry con. Where the queer community banded together for a party, and raised a bunch of money for a homeless charity. The charity helped people in that community, as well. It’s those ties that will make or break us as things unfold. It’s the relationships that we build now that will determine the future of queer movements in America. The furry community can either step into history or have it thrust upon us. An example was made in Austin, Texas. The former freak repository of the state had a glimmer of what the future could be.

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