Legislation that would “prohibit 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,” has been introduced in Texas. This is the latest result of longstanding rumors about “furry” subculture in schools.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
In fact, the bill itself is called the “F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act” and the lawmaker who proposed it – Texas Rep. Stan Gerdes – said in a recent Facebook post that “educators should be focused on teaching, not managing classroom disruptions from kids pretending to be animals.” Several outlets, including NBC News, The Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle, have debunked rumors about such disruptions.
Still, the bill was referred last week to the Texas House Committee on Public Education. Gerdes noted that it has support from Texas Gov Greg Abbot and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, both Republicans.
Among other things, it bans “barking, meowing, hissing, or other animal noises that are not human speech,” as well as “licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance,” and wearing collars or animal-like ears.
“Speaker Burrows has reassigned our legislation as House Bill 54, a low bill number that signals its priority status in the Texas House!” said Gerdes in his Facebook post. When one commenter called the bill “ridiculous,” he said: “Wish it wasn’t true, too,” but he did not offer information on specific cases.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Gerdes said in a written statement that he wrote the bill in response to an incident in Smithville ISD, “but he did not elaborate,” and that neither Gerdes nor the school district immediately responded to a request for more information Monday. Abbott also recently said that “furries” go to school dressed as cats and have litter boxes in their classrooms.
“Abbott referenced two rural school districts but did not name them,” The Dallas Morning News reported. “Asked for information about those cases, a spokesperson for Abbott’s office, Andrew Mahaleris, told The News the governor ‘has heard from countless parents growing frustrated at the quality of schools, the substance of what is taught, and failures of ISDs leading to an unwelcoming learning environment for their children.’”
The outlet noted that Abbott’s comments “echoed debunked rumors” that have been circulating for years. For example, the GOP chair in Williamson County falsely claimed in 2022 that Round Rock schools were lowering cafeteria tables so furries could eat without their hands, and the school district publicly refuted the claims.
NBC News dove into the rumors that year and found that every school district that was named by 20 GOP politicians who claimed that litter boxes were being provided to students in K-12 schools said the claims were false. It found “no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats.”
They did find one school that had a littler box on hand, but for a very different reason. In Jefferson County, Colo., where the Columbine High School mass shooting occurred in 1999, the Jefferson County School district began stocking small amounts of cat litter in 2017 as part of “go buckets” of emergency supplies in case people get trapped in a classroom during a mass shooting.
In Uvalde, Texas, students and staff waited for 77 minutes during the 2022 mass killing at Robb Elementary School.
“This thing has gotten out of control with politicians just wanting to have a talking point,” said John McDonald, former director of campus safety at Jefferson County schools, who’s now a school security consultant cited by NBC. The outlet said its 2022 report that GOP gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl insisted in interviews that students were dressing and identifying as cats, disrupting class, and even hissing, though county schools denied the claims.
In October 2022, Joe Rogan of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast also told former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard that a litter box was installed in a school that his friend’s wife worked at for a girl who “identifies as an animal,” though he did not name the school and his publicist did not respond to NBC News for comment. Forbes reported the next month that Rogan admitted in another episode that: “It doesn’t seem like there was any proof that they actually put the litter box in there.”
While “furries” are part of a real subculture, it is more focused on anthropomorphic animals that act like humans – think “Looney Toons” or “Zootopia” – than humans acting like animals. There are conventions for the subculture around the world, such as Midwest FurFest, and NBC News reported that it did not find any links to people in this subculture using litter boxes. The International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP) provides information and research on the topic, including information for parents who believe their children are interested in it.
Last week, Abbott referenced the “F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act” when talking with a group of pastors in Austin about the need for private school vouchers, a common Republican policy initiative, per The Dallas Morning News. Audacy reported last week on the GOP movement in favor of private school choice as a way to tackle public education challenges and noted that there are difficulties in measuring whether it is effective at improving student outcomes.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok