Yes, but it's generally been one-on-one discussions; I've avoided group arguments on the topic. Even then, and even though I make a point that I don't act on my desires (partly because I think obeying even those laws we disagree with is a necessary part of a functioning society), even then it's hit-and-miss.

It really depends on various factors:

• what you have to offer
• whom you´re offering it to
• what you have to back up your sermon
• what the one you´re talking to has to compare to your stories and opinions
• what kind of situation you´re choosing to discuss it

More precise: if you´re trying to convince some random friend that you´re totally into using Fido as a live sex toy to enhance your sex life with your human partner, it will probably turn out bad for you and blow up in your face. But if you can tell a coherent and stringent story explaining your emotions, emphasizing them instead of the common "me gets horny on doggy/horsey", you´ve possibly set one foot in the door. Furthermore, it´s not so smart trying to convince someone who isn´t very open to homosexuality that you´re into animal dick. You always have to take the recipient´s point of view into the equation here... It always is very helpful to be able to back up your arguments. I had several "coming outs" to friends that led to visiting my mare so they were able to see I´m not fantasizing; when they saw my mare and me interacting with each other, I had them on my side. Without something that is plainly visible, all the arguments are nothing more than words. It also plays an important role what the one you´re trying to convince has already seen and heard about zoophilia. Many folks have run into animal porn accidentally and we all know that a big percentage of that can be easily interpeted as brutal, vicious and absolutely non-friendly to the animal´s wellbeing. I´m not very experienced in AP, but I´ve seen some pretty fucked up things with tied horses, with horses clearly showing their discontent by stomping, I´ve seen plain evading actions that should keep any real zoo from continuing any action...even if people don´t have enough knowledge of horses, many of these things are subconsciously noticed by them. It will be very hard for every genuine zoo to destroy such an unfavorable image of what we allegedly do to our animals. It´s also very important to be honest, always! Especially in eye-to-eye discussions, people will get it when you´re straight up lying to them for a better public image. The ones you discuss with may be uneducated or straight up anti, but they´re not dumb. You also should not make the mistake to leave out all the grey areas involved in zoophilia/bestiality. Don´t try to tell ´em that "we´re all good guys", nobody will buy it from you. Differentiate. Just tell it like it is; that there are some fucked up individuals out there calling themselves zoo, but acting like assholes. Don´t cut out stuff like fencehopping, ´cause it´s very likely that the persons you´re speaking to will run across a headline someday. Just take a solid stance on all of the moral issues of zoophilia. Show ´em that you´re WORTH their trust and tolerance by speaking out loud and clear against the vile parts, the egocentric things, the ones giving a flying shit about animals. Don´t get bitchy during the conversation; namecalling won´t help anybody. Don´t jump into their faces with it: prefer a slow approach instead of "Hey,man, I like to fuck animals, you down wit dis?" Realize that you´re offering them quite a huge chunk to swallow with your confessions...even talking about it without coming out to them is still enough to choke ´em out when you´re not preparing them properly and with dilligence. And finally: know when you´ve lost: Retract immediately then. You won´t be able to force them to swallow it, no matter how hard you try. If any sign of being uncomfortable shows up, adjust your approach; show some respect for the fact that they do not think about having sex with animals on a daily basis. For them, it´s goddamn weird stuff.Use morality, show ´em that zoophilia isn´t necessarily a "fuck-through-the-barn/doghouse" bonanza. Anyone who can see his/her own beliefs and morality in you, even when it´s only partially, anyone able to make a connection between the own sex life and yours has it easier to relate to you. Shared morals are a key to tolerance.

Oh, and be well prepared. Don´t just plunge into discussions without any back up literature and/or other sources. Don´t just debunk their "lies" with sterile "facts" you´ve learned from one of the "debunk compilations" that are out there.Try to avoid the "us versus them" mentality at all costs and be aware that you´ll never be able to win everyone over (as we should have learned from the past days shitfest in here ;) ).

With all of that said, you´ll be able to gain a few new alliies for zoophilia. It IS possible, but it takes lots of preparation, efforts and some luck to tip one of those over who are kinda undecided and have an open mind and heart.

I actually find that you can convince a lot of people, especially in certain contexts. Notably, one-on-one discussions tend to be the most productive. Also, there's basically no point in discussing with certain people, though. I think if someone's anti-LGBT, for instance, they're pretty much a lost cause on this subject.

Anyway, so yeah. I've had a fair number of successes, so I think it's valuable. There's one in particular on a different forum where someone disagreed rather strongly with zoophilia (jumped into the topic readily enough), but actually listened to my arguments and now is supportive, and I've gotten along with pretty well since.

I also got a private message some half a year after one conversation where someone said they had been thinking about my arguments since, and concluded I was in the right. So sometimes even if you don't seem to make a difference at first, it doesn't mean that what you say might not have an effect down the road.

Really depends on the people with whom you are arguing. Some people just naturally have a predisposition to accept certain things even if their "wisdom of repugnance" tells them that they probably should not.

I've talked with my close friends about general paraphilia several times, and I always make a point to adopt the devil's advocate position in order to gauge their positions on the subject, despite the fact that I am a paraphile myself. By doing this, I found that most of my friends are open to the idea of equating paraphilia to other "legitimate" sexual orientations. They consider a paraphilia something that cannot be fixed by therapy or medication and they even express empathy for the people who are afflicted by it. A few of my friend even believe paraphilia is something one is born with.

So naturally we've discussed (and in some cases argued) zoophilia. I always feel a bit uncomfortable bringing the subject up because I fear it could have the potential to expose me, although I guess this is probably just my paranoid mind playing tricks on me. Even though I still play devil's advocate even when talking about zoophilia, I make sure to defend it as well. I think there is nothing morally wrong with a loving and reciprocal sexual relationship with an animal and I am pretty competent at making others adopt this point of view as well. I find people generally start their argument by likening or even equating zoophilia to pedophilia. From then on it just becomes a game of pointing out everything that makes zoophilia fundamentally different from pedophilia and after that, people mostly fail to find anything coherent to condemn zoophilia from a moral perspective.

I agree with what /u/30-30 has posted above, but there are a few things that differ in my own experience. I find that people generally don't even make the connection to fence hoppers, animal abusers, sadists and other less savory individuals when talking about zoophilia as a true sexual orientation and not as a fetish. It makes no sense to correlate heterosexual rapists with the whole of heterosexuality, so why should be any different for "true" animal lovers?

So to answer your question, I guess I could say yes. It's best to remember that youtube and reddit comments are probably not a fair representation of real life.

As Ghandi said, be the change you would wish to see in the world. It's not often you can by the force of argument change an opinion but you can influence based on your actions and conduct.

the trouble with doing this on reddit is that even though you may have a good point, people just knee-jerk downvote you. This leads to other people seeing the downvotes and presuming you are in the wrong, rather than forming their own opinion. Herd mentality.

No, if you successfully refute all their arguments, they just start over with an already refuted one.

You then dilligently refute it again, only to have them go run for some kind of mommy like complain to the mods or such.

So no.

Nope. in the places I frequent (not reddit) there are always zoos who stray in and bring up the topic anonymously to stir things up. In the end everyone just becomes annoyed as fuck (which I understand). Occasionally it outright backfires. The best you get is people becoming complacent toward it.

Everywhere else people have a short memory and don't care enough one way or the other for any points to count in any tangible way.

in all honesty, the best result ive ever gotten was the other person running out of arguments and then saying something along the lines of "i dont want to argue with sickos anymore".

On some internet forums, I've gotten comments like "wow, I never thought about it like that before, maybe I'll have to think about this..."

You have to be very careful about how you phrase things though.

IRL, when the law against bestiality came up in a discussion at work and I told my boss privately that I hope this kind of discussion doesn't lead to people talking badly about zoophiles in general, because at some other places (like at uni) it had gone to people talking about how zoophiles should be killed and so on. And that I have friends with all kinds of sexualities, including zoophiles, and they can't help it that they sometimes fall in love with animals.

My boss paused "what... in love with animals?"

"Yes, that's what zoophilia is, and even though I understand the law, I still like my friends"

"Huh... okay. Well, I don't think people here will be so immature about the subject as those people at university."

Note that this was hardly "arguing", I phrased like I worried that people would start talking about violence towards strangers. But I still think I put a new thought in my boss' head, she had probably thought that sex with animals was something people did only to hurt them, she had never considered the possibility of some people really wanting relationships with animals.

Yes, on a few different occasions. Most were online and fairly anonymous, but I have made people in various forums think before about what they thought they knew about zoophilia and abuse.

Have told one person IRL, my closest friend that I felt comfortable enough with to let him know this part of me, and he is strongly against bestiality and zoos but accepted it, because I'm his friend and if it's a part of me I can't help he won't alienate me for it. I'm making him rethink his thoughts on certain things, and now he admits that he sees zoophilia very differently than before he met me.

I just like to make people think, to plant that little seed of suggestion in people that might get them thinking deeply and looking for more answers, and, maybe some people finding out that they are zoo themselves.

I have changed people from being totally against zoosexuals and zoosex to be in favor of it. Been doing activist on youtube for 10 years I think. Though, the number of people who I fail to educate is way bigger than the number that I manage to educate. Probably because the people who are most vocal against it are the most bigoted and unintelligent people you will ever see. Very few times they have an open mind and decent intelligent to understand facts.

I can only hope that the other million of people who don't say anything in the comment section are neutral to it or in favor of it. Or at least intelligent enough to be educated when the time comes.