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Since we have publicly posted our email on Flayrah, we have received numerous emails on the fur community in Oklahoma and why they are so bad. Some in a positive tone on the current standing in Oklahoma, some in a negative viewpoint, and some in a neutral light. We have noticed however that with proof given in these various emails that the source of discourse seems to come from a select group of furs in positions of power within the OK Fur community. While we will not post addresses or any information about the people's private lives (we've seen more emails than we care to with private information about the person or people in it), we will release their names as they were constantly mentioned in the emails.
The first and loudest problem in the OK Fur community according to solely to the number of emails we got on the issue is Rae, with her husband - Koori - coming behind in a close second (though there were quite a few emails that supported Koori but disapproved of Rae). Rae and her husband, known as Koori Kitty, are admins in the Facebook group for the Oklahoma Furs. Insider information also lists her and her husband as sitting and voting board members for the Tails and Tornadoes Fur Con in Tulsa. We have also received numerous emails that when there has been an accusation against someone - whether proven false later on or not - she or her husband quickly hops into the Facebook group and either outright calls for them to be run out of town "with pitchforks and torches like the olden days" as one email put it or just generally airing the rumor in the group to stir up more dissent against the person who was accused. Even when the person has been proven innocent later on, there has been no recorded apology in public or redaction of statements made, leading many to write something similar to this one email: "If Rae wasn't around Koori or an admin or board member, I'd feel a lot safer going to Oklahoma to visit some of my furry friends there. As it is, if I'm accused of anything, I know I can count on Rae being the first to comment on the issue or pushing her husband to do something about it." There were also emails about some personal interactions that people have had with Rae. Quite a few crossplayers, crossdressers, and animegao cosplayers that have either passed by her, talked with her out of costume, or overheard conversations she was having with other people say that she's avidly and vehemently against guys who dress like girls, though she's fine for some reason with girls dressing like guys. She's even gone so far as to claim that guys that dress as girls are just "doing it to get close to our kids" or "are mentally sick" and implying that all male crossdressers are pedophiles, need to be hospitalized, or need to be arrested for their "future crimes". When confronted about this by both former state furs and current state furs, she denies all allegations. Considering that she and the rest of the fur community in Oklahoma claim to be super tolerant of the LGBT and other various communities like the anime and cosplay communities, this strikes us as a rather odd and negative stance to take. While we did mention Koori as being a close second, most of the emails listed the probable culprit as his wife Rae. A good portion of emails said that Koori can be a quite loving fur to be around and who generally has made their conclusions after doing research but these same emails also noted that Koori has since been seen joining in on the "guilty until proven innocent and even then you're still guilty" train. Koori is a known DJ in his area and has hosted many events at clubs and during the nightlife. Lots of emails claim that they knew Koori before Rae and have seen a slow decline in the person they once knew and enjoyed being around. That's not to say that Koori couldn't choose his path and choose not to let Rae affect him, but we also understand that our climate and surroundings can affect us and change us into people that we weren't whether good or bad. Another group we got a lot of emails on was the group of admins in charge of the Oklahoma Fur Community from okfurs.net. According to numerous sources, anyone who disagrees with them on a topic of importance to the admins is banned or kicked from the chat for “arguing with the admins” or being “anti-vax” or “a nazi” or a “Trump supporter”. Again, they preach tolerance and love but the moment someone disagrees with one of their beliefs, they suddenly are intolerant. Some of the groups notable leaders include Bikendi and (according to Kai himself) formerly Kai. Kai has stated that they stepped down from the admin position in the group. Upon review and asking these admins for comment, we found that the okfurs.net group was as safe a place to be as any other chat and that these accusations came from people who were banned for various reasons such as breaking chat rules or arguing with admins who are trying to help. While the Facebook group has had mostly mixed reviews about how they deal with people, okfurs.net has received some negative (almost all of which we dismissed due to evidence the writers gave incriminating themselves as breaking the rules of the group). We find that more users than not think that the okfurs.net group is the place to be over the Facebook group. One user had this to say about an admin named Bikendi: “Despite what some people may say about Bikendi, he actually keeps a level head when dealing with issues and sometimes even acts as the mediator for issues that he may not technically have to.” Another writes to us, “When I first opened up about being gay in the community, I felt slightly like a pariah, but Bikendi made me feel welcome at one of the events we attended recently, though I doubt they remember my face.” As such, if you are looking for a welcoming community in the OK Fur community, we recommend the telegram group as they seem to have more support than their partners on Facebook. When asked for comment, Bikendi had the following to say, "As an organization, we act in accordance with http://values.okfurs.net and uphold our rules at http://chatrules.okfurs.net The full extent of the groups we moderate and officially participate in are listed on chatrules.okfurs.net and we do not know about nor care to be quoted about, interviewed for, nor otherwise involved in incidents involving other Oklahoman organizations." We also reached out to Tails and Tornadoes Fur Con for comment, as well as Koori Kitty and Rae. At the time of publication (05-Oct-21), we have not received a response to our request to comment. We can only hope things turn around for Oklahoma, but with the people currently running the show, Oklahoma remains in the eyes of other states’ furs, a social pariah of “do as I say, not as I do.” From the desk of the editors: Normally we would pass this story up as a bunch of hearsay and people who are just upset that they were banned, but we started receiving messages from people inside both social medias about this story both supporting some of the admins and condemning others. Along with some anonymous screencaps of various issues mentioned above, we decided to run this story in full with the information provided to us. Thanks to our various readers for sending us the information to start the article and all our anonymous sources for providing more information on the fur community in Oklahoma. Edit 1635z 05-Oct-21: We have been contacted by the user CuteDeer from their actual account stating they did not actually send us that information and that someone was impersonating them. We would like to publicly apologize for this mistake. We try our best to follow up and make sure people are who they say they are, but sometimes we cannot and have to take their word as they say who they actually are. We will be reviewing our procedures and seeing if there's anything we can change and make better going forward. Edit 1718z 07-Oct-21: Grammatical and syntax errors corrected post-publication. We have also been notified that Bikendi and Koori may be friends more than just admins of two OK Fur Groups as was referenced to us by a TikTok video sent to us as well as the fact that Bikendi has been seen multiple times with Koori at various events such as TTFC. This may be why Bikendi gave us the statement he did rather than comment and why TTFC as well as Koori and Rae did not respond to our requests to comment. We would also like to note that we have had even more people step up and send us emails on Rae's misbehavior including the fact that they apparently made the TTFC con-goers give her a video call to sing her "happy birthday" while she was at home during the con. It wasn't just one or two people emailing us, it was multitudes upon multitudes saying they felt super awkward about the entire scene that unfolded during opening ceremonies. Article written by: Writers Ichi (1), Nana (7), and Hachi (8) Article edited by: Editors Yokai and Kitsune Article followed up on by: Editor Shinigami and Public Relations staff member Saiin For private comment or if you have a story you’d like to see us run, feel free to email us at [email protected]
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