Category: Blog

I normally don’t like writing “Current Events” pieces (and greatly prefer focusing on what SEO grifters like to call “evergreen content”), but I feel this warrants it.

Content warning: Violence, death, mentions of political extremism.

What Does “Great” Mean?

Imagining living under constant threats of having your house burned down for 2 years, because your neighbors hate that you and your spouse are both male.

Then, one day, they make good on the threats and burn your house down, forcing you to move away. You return to the charred remains to check your mail, only to notice the skull of one of your dogs and its harness displayed in full view. As you try to process your loss, a neighbor walks up shouting homophobic slurs.

And then he pulls a gun and fires at you both, killing your spouse.

This isn’t some apocryphal, tragic tale from the 20th Century during the early Gay Rights movement.

It happened today.

This is the story about the death of the actor that, among other things, voiced a King of the Hills character.

This is a story that the mainstream media widely downplayed as merely “dies in shooting”. You can read what really happened from Jonathan Joss’s surviving husband.

Meanwhile, people on Social Media are claiming victory over Pride Month, even going as far to say its absence from Target is a sign that “we are healing”. Target’s new direction for June (and their recent “anti-DEI” stance) were the direct result of Donald Trump’s election in November. Trump’s movement called itself Make America Great Again (MAGA).

So I must ask the people who supported this movement: Was the manner in which Jonathan Joss was tormented and ultimately killed evidence of America being “great”?

What does it even mean to be “great”?

So many people want to think of us as great, but nobody talks about what that actually means. “Nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.”

An Opinion

I’d argue that America is truly at its greatest when even its most vulnerable and most freaky citizens can make ends meet and live their fucking lives in peace.

I grew up around red-blooded, patriotic Americans. They had their own kind of Pride–not the gay kind: Proud to be an American. We’re the Land of the Free, so they happily called it.

But here’s the thing: no one is free until everybody’s free.

This is actually very easy to understand, if you try:

If there exist any unfree people on the Earth, then all someone malicious has to do is declare you’re one of the unfree. If that happens, what are you gonna do about it? You need freedom to defend such accusations, and we just established those people are not free, and now you’re not, either.

But if everyone is free, there is no longer an unfree classification that can stick to you, and thus your freedom is preserved.

A lot of social media posts have been spun about the “paradox of tolerance.” Similar to that one, the paradox of freedom dissipates when you think about it for half a second, and all you’re left with is a social contract.

Even though it’s so easy to caricaturize and stereotype, a truly great person would seek to actually listen and understand someone different.

The Obvious Thing To Do

The worst kind of people are currently emboldened to enact violence against LGBTQIA+ Americans.

It would be great if you would stand with us–not as faggots, dykes, and whatever slurs are popular against transgender people today–but as neighbors, friends, cousins, siblings, parents, funny aunts and uncles, and whatever other relationship the English language didn’t come equipped to succinctly describe in a sentence like this one.

If you truly believe in a greater America, you can only make it a reality by acting out of genuine love and compassion for Americans.

Hatred, prejudice, and violence do not serve any of us well.

Reality of Hope, the Sundance Film Festival documentary around a furry friendship founded in spaces for Virtual Reality that turned into a real world life saving procedure of a kidney donation is set to publicly premiere on the weekend of furry’s largest virtual gathering, Furality, on Sunday, June 8th.

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Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, earthfurst, InkyCrow, and Rakuen Growlithe.

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May was really busy for the guild, with the Cóyotl Award winners announced and guild officer elections! We’re settling into the middle of the year with some thoughts of how we should move ahead with changes to guild membership and also how we can get the word out about the guild to writers who might not know about us yet.

We’ve had some great new book releases over the last several months and I’ve been bad about updating the reading list at the bottom of the monthly newsletters. It’s updated now, so definitely take a look and grab copies of the books you’ve missed! I’ve also been bad about updating the open markets list below. Remember you can always check our Furry Writers’ Market page on the website to find new anthology calls and other open markets for your writing!

Our new VP has started a weekly writing ‘prawmt’ on the Discord server, if you’re looking for fun story prompts. If you hop on over to Sofawolf Academy and make an account (if you don’t already have one) you can watch an interview with me, your reluctant guild president.

Happy Pride Month! I hope your wordcounts soar this month and your troubles dwindle.

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
The Morning After – Deadline June 1, 2025
Plott Hound Deadline June 15, 2025
Neo-Twiny Jam – Deadline July 1, 2025
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest book releases from our members:
My Remise, by Koda Copeland, Released March 25, 2025
Tales of Scales, by Michael Miele, Released April 2, 2025.
Wind Singer: An Imbrium Novella, by Frances Pauli, Released April 19, 2025
Meeting Dominique, by Royce Day, Released May 1, 2025.
Dragon’s Soul, by J.F.R. Coates, Releasing June 7, 2025.