Grouping therians

If it is a community, it is highly fragmented into very different kinds of people. Common distinctions by which therians can be grouped include how they sense their "non-human side", beliefs about its relationship to their human side, whether this is a partial or full identification, the species involved, the degree of integration or separation (ie the degree to which it and their human side are experienced mutually exclusively or simultaneously), the perceptual and experiential differences which arise between the different sides, and the degree of conscious control over their access to these sides of themselves.

Subculture social structure 

Therianthropy as a subculture does not have any central dogma or tenets, nor any recognized authority. However, those who have been around for a long time are generally listened to, though less out of any perceived spiritual authority than simple acknowledgment of experience. The word "greymuzzle" is often used tongue-in-cheek to describe these people. 

While there is no off-line social organization, there exist online communities of therians with many diverse outlooks on the concept, including Christians, pagans, and atheists. As could be expected, disagreements are frequent, and the many online forums and chat rooms of the community each have their own "atmosphere," ranging from total acceptance to scornful cynicism. There have been intermittent "real-world" gatherings, referred to as howls, but their purpose is primarily social.

There is a complex and evolving interrelationship between social/subcultural therianthropy, the gay "bear" community, a motif that is slowly infiltrating the hetero BDSM world, neo-paganism, roleplaying gamers (see especially "Werewolf: The Apocalypse"), the vampire lifestyle via the gamer connection, and thus (but to a lesser extent) the goth scene and horror fandom, furry lifestylers, cosplay and anime/manga fandom, and the more costuming-oriented aspects of high fetish fashion. Practitioners may be in several, even potentially all, of these affinity groups at once, and work their "animal side" into their image within them in various subtle to highly visible ways, such as anthropomorphized animal costuming, the adoption of an animal-referential "scene name", affected animalistic mannerisms, live action roleplay, the wearing of furs or other totem-animal items, and even artificial fangs, claws, ear prosthetics or cat-eye contact lenses. 

The vampyre connection is particularly visible subculturally (despite the divergent origin and nature of the myths behind shapechangers and the undead) because of the strong connection between the aforementioned game and it's "parent" publication, "Vampire: The Masquerade", as well as the recent vampire vs. lycanthrope movies Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, loosely inspired by the games. This simultaneous subcultural surge is of course mostly propelled by the post-1960s reimagination of the man-beast and the vampire” the most enduring horror icons since the early days of cinema ” in a neutral, but frequently erotic light.