Texas Lawmaker Pushes ‘Furries’ Ban In Schools, Which Is Fueled by Internet Hoaxes

Texas is known for its absurd nature in politics, this latest venture is the most asinine thing they have introduced yet, HB 54, better known as the F.U.R.R.I.E.S ACT. This was introduced by the Representative from Smithville Texas, Stan Gerdes (Republican), who is pushing a bill that is supposed to be putting a stop to “non-human behavior” in schools, the bill is based on a conversation that the Representative had with a School administrator, but has denied any type of activity in her school district.

Introduced in March, the bill titled “Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education,” would if passed, amend the state education code to ban “any non-human behavior by a student, including presenting himself or herself, on days other than exempt days, as anything other than a human being.” (Exempt Days would include Halloween and school spirit days, provided that a school holds no more than five such days in a year.) The banned behavior that is listed in the bill includes adopting “features that are non-human” including leashes, pet collars, or fake tails, barking and meowing in school, “licking oneself or others for grooming or maintenance,” or using a litter box to urinate or defecate. Governor Greg Abbott has also been using the same argument that Gerdes has been peddling in his Bill, which the Governor has backed. Abbott has been waging a war against public schools with the School Voucher Bill, a new program that uses public dollars to fund private school tuition, which had heavy criticism from Educators and both Democrat and Republican Lawmakers, saying it will drain financial resources from Texas’ more than 5 million public school students and subsidize the private education of wealthy families. It’s no secret that the Governor and Representative Gerdes are using this as a Smear Campaign against the Public School System, which the Governor has been channeling a similar ‘tactic’ that President Donald Trump has been using, which has been mostly just insults and threats toward anyone who oppose his Private School Voucher Bill, which is now signed into law.

When Gerdes presented the bill last month, he said he fully expected members of the subculture he was targeting to show up at the Capitol “in full furry vengeance” when the bill was heard. In a press release, the Smithville Republican said “Just to be clear — they won’t be getting any litter boxes in the Texas Capitol,” which came to that faithful day when he was proven wrong, it was four people who showed up to testify against the measure included a public school teacher and a Texan who worried the measure could affect students with disabilities. State Rep. James Talarico, a Round Rock Democrat Grilled the Smithville Republican, calling the bill a “joke” but said it would have serious consequences for educators. Teachers and schools could face fines of $10,000 to $25,000 for allowing behavior prohibited by the bill. Talarico wasn’t comfortable with any bill that was going after a non-existent issue, saying “Governor Abbott has used this litter box rumor to paint our schools in the worst possible light. That’s because if you want to defund neighborhood schools across the state, you have to get Texans to turn against their public schools. So you call librarians groomers, you accuse teachers of indoctrination, and now you say that schools are providing litter boxes to students. That’s how all of this is tied together.” Gerdes denied the accusation. State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, defended Gerdes as a supporter of public schools while casting Talarico’s opposition as having an “obsession” with the Governor.

Available Now: Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture

The Furry Fandom has been around for years and has been portrayed in the media as perverts and often the butts of jokes due to wearing animal-themed costumes or making artwork or crafts of anthropomorphic creatures, despite the stereotype, the Furry Fandom has done a lot of great work in raising money for charities through the conventions that are held (examples include the Texas Furry Fiesta that is held in Dallas annually, and Pittsburgh holding Anthrocon annually.) The Litterbox Hoax has been pushed around since 2021, when it was first reported in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the Hoax would move into the United States, where it would be pushed by Various American conservative and right-wing politicians and media personalities, listed below:

This Bill and the Litterbox Hoax it’s based on is just another way to not only troll people online but also spread fear and use it for anti-LGBTQIA+ and Anti-Trans rhetoric. There have been lawmakers who have introduced similar bills passed in North Dakota and Oklahoma, which would allow animal services to remove students who identify as furries from school. Each time a bill like this is introduced, it infringes on the First Amendment rights of Children and lacks concrete evidence for the need for this kind of legislation, not to mention its potential impact on protected expression calls for reevaluating its merits. For more on this, be sure to check out Tulsa Kids for Dr. Tamecca Rogers, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Tulsa Technology Center’s thoughts on that Oklahoma Bill.

Source: Houston Chronicle

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