Oh, I had some idea ; of some of it anyway.
iN 1990, I made friends with a couple in college that described themselves as ELFiNKIND and suggested I might find the Elfinking Digest interesting;
It was an email digest where they collected messages from people; it was like a forum like this one.
Now this is 1990: 33 years ago. This was their intro message – probably Nov 1990 – and tell me this doesn’t sound like 2023?:
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“This email-based discussion digest provides a forum for elves and other members of what has been described as the “otherkind” to discuss items of interest related to their species and state of being. As such, it is somewhat free-form in nature, with a wide variety of topics likely to be discussed at any given time. Topics considered of primary importance are those dealing with who, what, and why we are; and what, if anything, we should be doing about it.
A good many of those on the list are of a neopagan or “magical” religious bent; however, this should not be confused with the primary issue at hand. It is not the position of the list or the opinion of the list moderator that a particular religious belief is required to participate. Neither is one’s religion necessarily indicitive of one’s species.
Those receiving the digest tend to fall within one of two groups: the curious observer, or the Elf/otherkind. I consider myself in the latter, but do not demand that anyone state their status. I do request this, but it is perfectly acceptable to decline the invitation. Whatever your role here, I hope you find the experience interesting.
IT SHOULD BE NOTED – and this is important – that the digest is very much NOT an exercise in role-play; we are NOT gaming, and this is NOT an in-progress RPG. We are quite serious about the reality of this matter. Anyone who feels it necessary to inform us that we’re either fools or insane for our beliefs may rest assured that we have already heard it, and do not need to hear it again.”
So the “otherkin” side of the internet, LGBTQI+ friendly etc I was familiar with right from the start and expected them fully to thrive through the decades and they did and do.