Furries have been maybe the single most maligned and harassed online community since the inception of the Internet. Furries are a fandom subculture that grew out of sci-fi and anime conventions in the early '80s and they're devoted to the celebration of anthropomorphic animals. Furries make artwork, write short fiction, and create "fursonas," which they use to interact with each other both online and in real life.

What is being a furry really about? What do furries actually do? Thanks to shows like CSI and misinformed exposes in publications like Vanity Fair, the furry community has been wildly misunderstood in popular culture. Targeted online bullying on 4chan, Reddit, and other online forums has added to the problem, fueling a misperception of the furry subculture as nothing more than a bizarre sexual kink, fetish, or half-baked "alternate species" equivalent to being transgender or gay.

In fact, the furry community is pretty much just a fandom, except that instead of being a fandom for an existing show, comic book, or video game, it's a fandom for sort of a loose concept, consisting entirely of original characters, and focused on creative expression and role play.