The cool thing about the furry fandom, at least from where I'm standing, is that it isn't even really a fandom, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather than fans bonding over a shared interest in some piece of media (though that can be part of it for some), furries are in effect fans of each other, bonding over a shared experience of naked and gratuitous self-expression. And by the very nature of what the fandom is, its members present themselves with faces and names entirely of their own choosing. In no other community like this is crafting your own identity such a fundamental part of the experience. When I think about all the furries I know, their fursonas, their chosen names and identities, crafted entirely from their own imagination, feel more to me like a true representation of who they are than any "real" face or legal name. Add to that how furry is such an unapologetically queer subculture and one of the few remaining queer spaces that hasn't been infiltrated by corporate interests and sanitized to all hell (though they do still try). I won't say it doesn't have problems and drama (every social space does), but ultimately this leaves furry as a community defined by radical queerness, immense creativity, and the encouragement of profound self-exploration.
part of my transgender awakening came from finding how much more comfortable I felt being called “Clover” and “doe” than anything on my driver's license, and when I came out, I took the same name for myself. my identity as a trans person and as a furry are inseparable; it's hard for me to tell one story without talking about the other. and furries are so wonderfully good at accepting someone's chosen identity at face-value that I always feel like I'm being perceived as who I am, regardless of how I might look or sound.
I couldn't have said it better myself. In my mind my fursona isn't some character I play, she's me. She's me in the purest sense of what identity is. She's me down to the bone and she's always been showing me who I really am. The furry subculture is the one place I really feel like I can be my true self, where I'm perceived as my best self without hesitation.
