I'm considering being open about my sexuality under my primary username. The reason why is for an answer to what I fear would happen if I did that.
I enjoy using one username across a bunch of websites, including game sites, chat rooms, and pet care forums. A part of me believes that I could find myself blocked from many places and facing unwanted hostility in others. Yet this may also be a gross overreaction.
What really makes this appealing is how this isn't real life, I have a reset button. Coming up with another universally usable username without needing leet spelling is the hard part. Personas and IPs are subject to change.
Background: I am a virgin, but my passion for and intimate attraction to dogs is undeniable. I cannot force myself to be romantically or sexually drawn to human women.
Dogs are a big part of my life. I have arranged my life and career goals around them. I dream of being in a place where I may foster dogs, take professional courses on dog training, and help out in shelters to save the lives of dogs there and find good homes for them.
If I had a large female dog, and if she was willing, in heat, flagging me, I probably would accept that invitation.
Simply saying this alienates me from many people. I don't want to imagine the impact being outted IRL would have. I could lose any and all dogs and the opportunity to work with those wonderful creatures. It would be devastating. Most painful is the hateful belief that I could possibly tolerate or even be willing to cause animal abuse, when by God I'm willing to think of a " lesser animal" as my spouse. Or that my only interest in helping at shelters is a turn on. Unfounded! It's like working in a candy store: sure I love candy, but I know it's not my place to take it, I'm there to protect it. Besides, the tragedy I see at shelters is very depressing and sickening.
But here, if I simply posted my usual username, I don't stand to lose everything I love. Most likely, nothing would happen. At worst, some insightful debates and a setback. I'd love feedback on whether or not I should.
EDIT: Thanks for all the comments! Yeah, as nice as it would be, it's not worth the risk. When in doubt, don't. I'll use a novelty account here as elsewhere. Honestly, though, it's not being outted that worries me so much as it is repercussions down the line. I intend to adopt a dog when I'm able, and I don't want anything to happen to my darling.
I cannot advise to be open. Witch hunts can and do happen. But it is your choice.
It would be nice to not have to hide this part of yourself wouldnt it? I feel the same way. The thing is though, this is real life, and bad stuff happens to good people. The chance of something bad happening is probably fairly slim, but why take the risk? In reality, you have little to gain and a lot to lose.
You have this place as a safe haven. you can scream it at the top of your lungs in here, "I AM A ZOOPHILE!", and no one gives a damn. We can talk about sexy doggies till the sun goes down and no one in here would care.
In the end, I would advise that you try to realise how good the resources you currently have are, and that you dont need to semi-publicly come out in order to make use of them. Be thankful for what you actually have, rather than wishing for something where you dont know the outcome.
The world isnt quite ready for zoophiles.
I love your mind. The combination of life events fostering it, and its apparent agility. Good luck.
I value honesty and transparency, so it often feels like a struggle having to hide this part of myself. It doesn't feel right, having to make separate accounts just to express my opinions on this issue... it's certainly not the only controversial opinion I hold, but to me it is NOT worth it to share my zoo thoughts under my primary username. Dogs are a very big part of my life too, and as you said, the impact of being outed can be absolutely devastating. It's not just my own safety at stake, but the safety of my animal partners as well... so I have to keep that in mind.
It's up to you, but if you choose to be out on your main account, you should be VERY sure that nothing can be traced back to you in real life. Good luck.
I'd highly advise against it, especially if you're planning on working with the same animals you're attracted to. If you open up about it on your other account, which is linked to a lot of other things by the sound of it, you run the very real risk of getting doxxed and possibly worse.
I think it's a really bad idea. These things can come back and haunt you, or so I've read. I've always been extremely careful, with redundant levels of protection for my identity and various online aliases.
There are pretty messed up people out there, some might be willing to make your life unpleasant just because they take issue with your choices. I think this goes for almost anyone who makes themselves seen online too, not just a zoo thing.
You have to be careful always, the more personal the info, opinion or secret, the more careful you have to be with it.
adding to the voices of "sure it would be nice, but it's just too risky." having to hide is one of the worst parts of being a zoophile... but i have to agree with actuallynotazoophile .. the world just isn't ready for us. so hide, we must.
Do not carelessly put that sort of information about yourself out online. It's a great idea to have an online 'persona' you can use to talk about these things, but you need to make an effort to ensure that someone wouldn't be able to link your accounts/comments to your identity easily. It's just not worth the risk.
It's a risk that I certainly wouldn't take. I'm all for coming out to trusted individuals, but the sheer bigotry that exists should be enough of an indication that the cons outweigh the pros. The problem with coming out in this way is that it is suddenly not only trustworthy people who know.
Believe me when I say that, when you're a zoo, it might only take one anti to ruin your life. So please, think long and hard about what you're going to gain when compared with how much you have to lose.
You seem like a really nice guy, and I'd hate for anything bad to happen to you. Brace yourself, because you are about to get soaked by a freezing cold bucket of tough love.
The internet is real life. You do not have a reset button. If you are "outed" on the internet, you are outed in real life. It's called doxxing, and there are a small number of extremely vehement, opinionated, angry, sociopathic internet users who will try their best to ruin your life if they see you voicing any opinions that they disagree with. Let me explain.
I am currently active on a widely known website, which I'll call xyz.com, under a different (and rather unique) username. I have been an active, contributing member to xyz.com for a long time, long enough that I feel a personal attachment to my username. I've made enough friends through that site that I wouldn't want to leave and start over somewhere else. I've also probably dropped enough personal information on xyz.com that an ambitious internet sleuth could figure out my real name. Once they know my real name, they could use that, along with other publicly accessible databases (like Facebook and LinkedIn) to find my email address, phone number, current home address, and employer.
Most importantly: when you Google my xyz.com username, my xyz.com profile is the first result. The next three results are the three most popular xyz.com posts that I've made. My xyz.com profile is easily discoverable. I cannot stress this enough.
Imagine that you are me. You're tired of hiding your zoophilia and you want to "come out" to the whole world by using the same username across all your accounts, because "that's who you really are inside". A noble intention. So you decide to use your xyz.com username for all your zoo-related reddit activities. Unfortunately, through the many years you've used xyz.com, you've leaked your real name, school, and country of residence. You've also forgotten that you leaked that information. And once you started posting zoo stuff to reddit, you built up a long history of zoo-related posts under the same username.
Imagine a zoophilia debate pops up on a popular subreddit. The debate is heated, but you jump in to support your fellow zoos. Some crazies are threatening people, but they can't really hurt anyone, because this isn't real life. It's "just the internet". And besides, your country protects freedom of speech, so you can say whatever you want. Right?
One of those crazies reads your counterarguments, and they REALLY, REALLY piss him off. He also has no job, no hobbies besides internet trolling, and no friends besides his buddies on /r/shitredditsays. He has infinite time to stew over the comments you made. So...
He Googles your username and finds your xyz.com profile. He reads every xyz.com blog post you've ever made. Through them, he discovers your real name, school, and country of residence. He Googles your name, finds 10 matching Facebook profiles, and uses your state and school to pick the right one out of the list. A quick glance at your Facebook work history leads him to your LinkedIn page. From there, he finds the current company you work for, and a full list of all your coworkers and professional contacts. The email address and phone number of your company's Human Resources department is one Google search away. The email addresses and phone numbers of your boss, and all your coworkers and professional references, are listed right on their LinkedIn pages.
He screencaps everything and composes it into a single infographic, which he then sends to all of his SRS buddies, with the singular intent to ruin your life.
The next day, your boss and all of your coworkers are flooded with emails and phone calls from angry anons claiming that you're a dangerous crazy animal fucker rapist whose only reason for working there is to fondle their boobies, penetrate their anuses, and drive their company into the ground - complete with graphic depictions of zoophilic porn that you may or may not have watched.
Your company has no choice. They can't risk a PR disaster of this magnitude. So they apologize to the anons. Then they fire you. You have 24 hours to clean out your office, turn in your badge, and abandon the career you so love. I hope you didn't have a mortgage, because you're fucked.
THAT is how a single internet comment can ruin your life.
THAT is why you never re-use usernames between zoo sites and non-zoo sites.
And if you're really, really unlucky, Gawker picks up the story. Then the first Google search result for your name is a clickbait article about how you lost your job over bestiality porn. Good luck ever volunteering at an animal shelter again with that hanging over your head.
Don't believe me? Here's a tumblr dedicated to getting allegedly racist people fired from their jobs, and here is an article describing how it works.
Yearningmice is right. Witch hunts do happen. They are not common, but they do happen, and people have been fired from their jobs because of dumb shit they posted online. There are people with nothing better to do than ruin your life, and if you give them a chance, they will do their best to ruin you.
Be smart. Use common sense. Don't give out personal info, don't re-use usernames. Anything else is making yourself a target for crazy assholes with a vendetta.
No, they won't. They'll send images of abused and allegedly abused animals.
These people have "tweetsheets" where they coordinate what to spam on twitter like this: http://pastebin.com/XQs0Rcsq and that's their "toolbox" of claims and images.
That's one point I'm glad to be wrong about. Disgusting.
Also, I recognize your username from a subredditdrama thread (I forgot how long ago it happened, might have been yesterday but may also have been months ago). Looks like you got pretty heavily brigaded over there, sorry about that.
They banned me after a while, but I am indeed doing it a bit too much. Another advantage of separate accounts is that this doesn't affect my "normal" activities on reddit.
It has been already said, but there are really no lengthy texts necessary, just the one question:
Are you absolutely sure you never posted anything that can identify you to any of the websites you use this username on?
If you're on small forums chances are they don't update their software often enough and known security holes remain open, so even PMs count.