Avatar Discrimination: A Club Gives Furs the Boot

By Grease Coakes

At random I wanted to hang out and listen to music at a human club. Human clubs are known for lots of emotes and dance music that you might hear at a dance club in real life. In my experience human clubs are great places for me to write, or to play neopets while my avatar just dances. If everyone uses emotes I’m not really missing out on much in the club chat.

Then one time while checking out one club, GOL Element the 8th, I was surprised that I was imed by the club host, Psique Delicioso.

Psique Delicioso: hun

Psique Delicioso: please change to human form

Psique Delicioso: lol

Grease Coakes: Why?

Psique Delicioso: no furries

Psique Delicioso: its rules bebe

Grease Coakes: So basically this club is against furries? (shocked)

Psique Delicioso: we not against anything hun

Psique Delicioso: it’s been like that since it’s been founded

Grease Coakes: Wouldn't you think a rule like that is outdated in SL?


A little later I was ejected for simply refusing to change to a human avatar.

The next day I stop in to see if lightning strikes twice. Sadly it does, but I was able to speak with the manager and I had this to say.


Grease Coakes: Hi Lava I was wondering why furries are not allowed at your club?

LavaIncandescente: cuz is in the rules

Grease Coakes: That's your only answer?

LavaIncandescente: we try to explain to people what to be allowed

LavaIncandescente: in this club stay rules  no animal no furry

LavaIncandescente: please can your change avatar

LavaIncandescente: ?

Grease Coakes: Is there a certain reason you do not allow furries or animals? I mean I have lots of Linden to tip your DJ and host. My money is no good here?

LavaIncandescente: @--'--

Grease Coakes: I don't have any human avatars.

LavaIncandescente: sure but you have need change avatar

LavaIncandescente: for to be allow here

Grease Coakes: And yet humans have been allowed in furry clubs. Don't you think it's rude and racist to not allow furries in your club?


A little later Tiggeh, a furry who likes to hang out at IYC, and I were both ejected for being furry. Tiggeh and I both began talking with each other."

Grease Coakes, "It's different if they only booted me, but if they booted two different furries that says something."

Tigg:eh (tiggy.scholessinger), "They are technically racists."

Grease Coakes, "I was thinking that for example we can change avatars in SL. But In real life how would that look if that same club in real life didn't allow blacks?"

I think in today’s multi cultured and multi-racial world a club in real life wouldn’t get very far if they said no Africans or Asians allowed.

Tiggeh also mentioned a group that he was a part of called “Furs Againist SL Social Inequality”. I easily found the group on Tiggeh’s profile and asked what the group was about.

Kenshin Kazoku (forgottendreamkeeper), "We're basically a group of furries who are fed up with the lack of respect here on SL... "

Kensihn was also booted from a cabin hangout sim just for being furry and got this excuse from the manager, "We have a very specific clientele and we would not want to offend anyone by allowing you here." Fur is offensive? It boggles my mind why someone would find an animal avatar offensive in second life.

The flip side is why someone would be prosecuted in real life for walking around in a fur suit. As a kid I remember watching Sesame Street or maybe seeing someone in a cartoon animal suit and thinking what would it be like to be a cartoon animal or a real animal? So if it socially acceptable to be in a fur suit, say an entertainer at Disneyland, why not dress up in a fursuit on your free time? Amurtigress, a griffin friend of mine, showed me a picture of him wearing his fursuit to cheer up children at a hospital in his country of Germany in real life.

I think this article speaks out that racism is wrong in today’s society whether as a pixel avatar or in real life. It’s sad to see that even in a virtual universe like SL where there are many great things to see and places to hang out. I was shocked at GOL when I was told not to be a furry. Something for GOL 8th element to think about is you can change your avatar in second life sure. But what if this was in real life and I was writing about a real life version of your club. Would you still ban a furry for being born the way he or she was? Yes I know furries don’t exist in real life, but I’m making a point.

It’s easy to eject a pixel furry, but would it be so easy in real life to say it’s just the rules and not have a valid reason behind the rules?

Feel free to stop by http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GOL%207/139/205/34 which leads to GOL Element the 8th to hang out as a furry.


Grease Coakes

A Titanic Misunderstanding

One of my most commented on articles in James and Dana's Second Life Newspaper was "We Don't Allow YOUR Kind Here," dealing with people shut out from locations just because of their appearance. Written a few years ago, it was my observation that it didn't happen as often as it seems, and while often against furry avatars by human sims it wasn't always so.

A few years later, I still get occasional complaints from friends about being made to feel less than welcome at a place. The most blatant example was from May of last year when a friend of mine was banned from a small store in Zindra, "get out of my sim." "What the hell is your problem? … What have I done to deserve this harassment?" "you are a furry that is enough to suspect you are a griefer and a copybot and other bad things too … furrys are annoying malicious griefer copybots" I didn't report on it then as I didn't want to end up accidentally give the small-time store owner more business, and was confident if this was an example of his mannerisms, his unprofessional attitude would soon lead to his bankruptcy.

More often, the complaints I get are of being ignored at a social spot. This might be a mater of perception as some clubs and other public places can get pretty quiet at times. It has still been my experiences most stores and clubs have no problem with furry, neko, tiny, or other avatars. So I was surprised to hear about a complaint about a place I had written about earlier this year: The Titanic.

I had gone to the Titanic sim a few times before, notably when I wrote about it during the Centennial of the real Titanic's first and last cruise. A few friends had the impression the staff of the place didn't like furry avatars. But no one bothered me while I was there. At the docks, it was explained the place had a dress code: formal attire and no child or "animal" avatars. Later when one of the staff was asked, he answered this meant four footed creatures. Furry avatars were welcome as long as they were formally dressed. Also when checking the staff page, they had one neko catgirl among their number.

More recently, one of my friends, a neko, come to me with a complaint, "Did you know that the 'wonderful' Titanic sim  is now banning people just for being a furry?" She and her furry partner had went to the ship, after changing their clothes to formal wear. They went to the ballroom, began dancing, and "we got told to change your av or leave: 'Now I have to ask all the furries to please change avatars or leave the ballroom.' … so much for them being a welcoming place for everyone."

Their response was to get a few friends and make a protest at the dock with signs, "Furs are people too!" It wasn't too long though before they were ejected from the sim, and were banned.

Considering how this contrasted with my earlier experiences, I went to the Titanic that night. It was after the party at the ballroom, and there were only a few people there, though a couple were staff. I was automatically sent a notecard as a reminder about the dress code, but no one raised a peep.

The staff member whom had cleaned up the protest was Joyful Finesmith. I contacted her, and she answered. She hadn't been on the Titanic at the time my two friends were asked to leave, she told me. She had returned only when several regulars complained about the protest. She found the protest amusing, calling it "well organized," but it still had to go. She did say she did inform the owner of the incident and what the protestors were complaining about.

But there was no ban on furred avatars, she explained, "we have several furry couples who come regularly." How could this have happened? Joyful did admit it might be due to an inexperienced hostess whom was confused by what an "animal" avatar met, saying they had a "lot" of new staff. She did add that even avatars not normally allowed sometimes are, saying the dress code is not always enforced away from the ballroom, and on weddings child avatars can be allowed. She also described one pony wedding, saying all they insisted on was that the party be formally dressed.

So it would seem what happened was not a change in policy by the venue's owner. Instead, it would appear to be the result of a single staff member booting people whom while unusual for the place still fit in it's dress and appearance codes, either out of ignorance or possibly malice. It's safe to say if the new hire was uninformed it was corrected, and if done due to prejudice the person will be looking for a new job if this is kept up.

Before closing, of the one place in "We Don't Allow YOUR Kind Here" that asked me to leave, it later began letting only club members enter, and membership cost five hundred Lindens. Five hundred Lindens just to be allowed to go to a laggy hole in the hall, in my opinion. Also at least one roleplay place that once disallowed furry avatars later changed their mind. The now defunct Firefly sim once wouldn't allow them, but later wrote them into their rules so one could play one as character there. When I wrote about the New Bastogne combat role-play, I stated the German army group had a policy of not promoting furs. One of the officers later told me that's not the case, but promotions in the group can be slow as they try to keep the higher ranks small.

Bixyl Shuftan