Influencer Mistakes Seattle Cat Convention for a Furry Event and Confronts Staff in Video Seen More Than 4 Million Times
An influencer's confrontation at a cat convention in Seattle, King County, Washington, has gone viral. During the Sea-Meow Convention, held on November 7 and 8 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, Edward Jacob "Jake" Lang pointed at greeters dressed in cat costumes and accused the organizers of running a furry convention. Furries are enthusiasts who dress as anthropomorphic animal characters. According to GO Magazine, video of the confrontation has since been viewed more than 4 million times, and one repost on Instagram drew 250,000 likes.
The Sea-Meow Convention bills itself as the biggest cat convention in the Pacific Northwest. According to the organizer's website and the Seattle Center events page, the two-day festival featured more than 100 vendors, a "Kitten Alley" area with kittens available for adoption and a cat-themed marketplace, with appearances by cat experts the Kitten Lady and Jackson Galaxy. Fifteen percent of ticket proceeds went to six animal welfare organizations, including the Seattle Animal Shelter and Seattle Humane.
In footage reported by multiple outlets, Lang accused staff of "indoctrinating the youth with homosexual and transsexual ideas," said "this furry stuff is not for children," claimed the event was "grooming children" and "soft porn," and said the organizers should be arrested. Staff repeatedly explained what the event was. One staff member calmly replied, "This is a convention for cats." Another woman told him the greeters were "dressed as kitty cats." Onlookers can be heard laughing in the footage, and staff eventually ushered Lang away from the entrance to the main hall.
Lang filmed his own visit and posted it to his social accounts, and Seattle-based creator Jonathan Choe posted a separate clip of the confrontation. The videos spread on X and other platforms from November 9, and Emerald City Wire, Bored Panda, DNA Magazine and Comic Sands were among the outlets that reported the story on November 10 and 11. DNA Magazine noted that the Sea-Meow organizer's website carried no statement about Lang's visit, and as of November 11 no police statement about the incident had appeared in public reporting.
According to multiple reports, Lang took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was charged with offenses including assaulting law enforcement officers, spent about four years in pretrial detention, and was pardoned by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term in January 2025. That same weekend, Lang and others also disrupted a Diwali celebration at another Seattle Center venue. According to the NW Asian Weekly, as reported by Emerald City Wire, U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal posted on X condemning that disruption, calling the hateful display something that has no place in Seattle or in the United States.
Source: Emerald City Wire
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：西雅图天际线与太空针塔资料图，Seattle Center 展览厅位于该区（Joe Mabel 摄，CC BY-SA，经 Wikimedia Commons），已裁为16:9，非事发现场。/ Seattle skyline and the Space Needle (file photo by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 16:9; the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall is in this district. Not the scene of the incident.
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