Talk about kitchens in Germanic languages, the Dutch have this neat phrase about cooking too. Except their cooking is spelled "keuken" and they do a whole lot of "deuken" in it.
1. The fandom isn't inherently a sexual niche. You can totally be a furry without being a sexual deviant.
However, a large portion of the fandom tends to lean themselves that way because of that deviancy. Someone may develop a kink from whatever popular media and find out that the fandom has a niche for people with that kink, but that's because of the broader tendency of furries to validate everyone, because f**k societal norms.
This is why it's preferable to be a furry once you're an adult (if you are by chance still underage), because children are reactionary little ants that are a bad case of desiring the forbidden fruit and will post anything R18 they see anywhere, and yet all the blame is pointed at the artists, who may have had "do not repost" in their bio.
But despite that and other internal issues, you can dip your toes in the water and ask your fellow furry friends what they think about the fandom as a whole and why they became a part of it and why they stayed. You may even arrive at a common theme for all testimonies if you do.
2. You can be a furry without the fursuiting and roleplaying. I recently had a coworker ask me what fursuiting is like and that confounded me because I'm not financially ready for it yet. As for roleplaying, I hardly ever did it, although I see the appeal in it. See, you can be a furry without doing either.
3. There are literally so many bases that tons of artists offer that you can just color in. Look up a colorable ref for whatever species your fursona may be and you will find several free of charge. Speaking of charging, you can also commission artists to draw your fursona, in case just using bases doesn't suffice.
Just don't turn to AI, haha. We furries are creators, not consumers.
4. Opinions on furries have mellowed out significantly, but that isn't to understate that they're still kinda hated by your average joe. Yes, to be cringe is to be free, but peronally, you can prevent most of the hate if you keep your fursona within furry spaces on the internet. Only come out as a furry with people that are really familiar with you, and keep it to yourself wherever it is not needed. In other words, read the room. Reading the room is somehow a lost art within the fandom, but change starts with you.
TL;DR: You don't need a kink, a fursuit, or have to RP to be a furry. Many artists are willing to help create your fursona. And you can avoid most of the hate against furries.
