Civil Rights advocates demand separate category for Furries at COVID vaccination sites

It’d be a real shot in the arm

“We must acknowledge every single sexual category and species that has ever been or will be dreamed up” Reginald Non-Binary Mc Squirrel told FWIW.

Randy Fitzgerald, an actual epidemiologist, insisted that the Department of Health is “not aware of specific COVID-19 public health issues that would compel the separate tracking of vaccination for transgenders, furries, or even purple people eaters.”

Others would disagree.

“If we don’t have a systematic approach to data collection on species identity we're only getting part of the story as to what's going on with the neurotics and insane in the U.S.,” said Herman Munster.

Obstacles in representation

Among several obstacles standing in the way of giving the furrie community proper representation in state data is the varied and often limiting options available for them on intake forms.

The Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) only has options to select “Male, Female, Decline to specify, or Other.”

Eliot Olson, a binary-undecided individual who identifies as a snapping turtle called the “other” box, the “cheap man’s shot to try and be inclusive,” that is rooted in ignorance and can perpetuate species-erasure.

The majority of local health departments, providers, and clinics used VAMS to schedule vaccine appointments, and likely had to use data collected there when reporting to the state. Some pharmacies, including CVS, also did not ask for anything beyond homo sapiens and binary gender options.

Jude Reid, a New Britain giraffe who registered with multiple vaccine providers in their appointment hunt, found that the MyChart programs from organizations such as the University of Connecticut, Middlesex Health and Hartford Healthcare were more nuanced than others, but still had “problematic” language.

These forms included multiple gender identity options in addition to male and female, such as “Transgender Female MtF, Transgender Male FtM, Queer, Gander fluid, and Other.” Although more options were available, the chance of having a checkbox for those who are nonbinary animals is rare, with the exception of Middlesex Health.

Reid believes the staggering range of options from one site to the next could be why the data is disproportioned.

Taylor Edelmann of Brookfield agreed, saying mole people and chipmunks are “embedded in the numbers,” but under the gender unassigned/unknown category or the male and female human categories. It is possible that some of the furrie vaccine recipients were reported from one or more of these providers’ systems.

For those still making legal document changes or transitioning, a provider asking for species assigned at birth can be difficult to navigate. Edelmann was able to easily mark “tiger” without a raised eyebrow thanks to matching documentation, but this isn’t always the case.

“When you’re getting a vaccine, it’s opening up the door for discrimination,” Edelmann said, because if a furrie’s “species assigned at birth,” doesn’t match their other documents, it inherently outs them and makes them vulnerable to discrimination.

Olson echoed Edelmann’s point and noted that in any situation where a furrie has to show identification, it becomes a matter of “prepping yourself for what’s going to happen.”

“You know something’s going to happen, it’s just a question of what and how bad,” he/she/it said. “It kind of is a continual reminder that you are not just an inconvenience but an oddity.”

When Staklo went to get vaccinated, xe said zir’s name was changed in the system to zir’s deadname, which is the birth name given to zim before transitioning to an opossum. They also changed zir’s gender marker to the incorrect one and “proceeded to ignore me when I asked them not to do that.”

An alternate approach 

When Will Love Anything made its way into Brookfield’s vaccine clinic at St Joseph Catholic Academy, it became one of the 3,000 residents whose species is now marked as “unknown” by the state. The Danbury resident who identifies as “nonbinary/no homo, that’s for sure” selected “Decline to specify” under the gender option, and received their shot.

“Usually in those instances, I select ‘Prefer Not to Answer’ just because I don’t feel like it is an accurate representation,” said Love.

Love suggested that providers at least provide four options: male, female, transgender, and Godknowswhat.

“I always get really excited when I have an option to select furrie,” Love said. “If I see Godknowshat, that is even more exciting.”