Texas legislator Rep. Stan Gerdes (R) has introduced The FURRIES Act, legislation to punish students who act like non-human animals in schools and penalize schools who allow this behavior. Anti-transgender Republicans claim that schools have been forced to accommodate students who identify as house pet “furries.” However, educators have largely said these claims are untrue and have led to external hostility against students and school staff.

Gerdes’ FURRIES Act, which stands for Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education and Schools, expressly forbids defecating in a litter box; licking one’s self for self-grooming; making animal noises; wearing collars, leashes or animal accessories; or any “surgical or superficial means” of displaying tails, fur, ears, or other physical animal features. It would also forbid teachers from promoting the idea that any of these behaviors are socially acceptable.

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Anyone witnessing the acceptance of non-human animal behavior by students would be allowed to file a complaint with the state attorney general, who is currently Ken Paxton, a transphobe. The attorney general could then leverage a $10,000 fine against schools for a first violation or a $25,000 fine for subsequent violations.

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The legislation makes exceptions for allowing animal behavior on Halloween, special theme days and through school mascots.

In a press release about the legislation, Gerdes’ office claimed that “a furry-related incident” occurred within the Smithville Independent School District, a small district outside of Austin that serves only 1,885 students, representing 0.03% of the state’s 5.1 million public school students. He didn’t elaborate about the incident nor have any known news reports covered the alleged incident.

“We cannot allow these types of roleplaying distractions to affect our students who are trying to learn or our teachers and administrators who are trying to teach,” Gerdes said in the press release. “We just have to keep this nonsense out of our schools, period.”

Texas Republicans under Gov. Greg Abbott (R) have increasingly pushed for public taxpayer funds to be redirected toward private for-profit schools. Right-wing “school choice” advocates have admitted that they seek to discredit public schools and generate high-profile lawsuits against them in order to generate support for taxpayer-funded private schools.

A brief history of right-wingers spreading the cat litter box lie

“Furries” are a subculture of people who dress up as animals (usually in mascot costumes). Right-wingers have increasingly used the term to refer to anyone who dresses up like an animal or pretends to act like one. Real-life furries say their costumes allow them to express playful and hidden parts of their personalities that are harder to show in human form. The furry community overlaps with the gaming, anime, and fantasy art communities. They’re also known for being pro-LGBTQ and anti-racist.

Various conservatives — including the current administration’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — have repeated lies about schools recognizing furries as a gender identity, but fact-checkers and school districts have repeatedly debunked such stories as hoaxes. Such stories are often meant to bias people against trans individuals and against trans-inclusive school policies, since they mock the idea of living as one’s authentic self.

An early example of the stories about students identifying as house pets and demanding litter boxes came from Michigan activist Lisa Hansen. Because Hansen opposed federal regulations allowing trans students to use school restrooms matching their gender identities, she claimed that students who identify as cats were allowed to use litter boxes in one school’s unisex restroom.

A Michigan school superintendent was forced to write an email to parents debunking such a lie. The Roseburg Public School District in Oregon was also forced to send a similar email after one social media user claimed its schools were accommodating students who dress up, act like, and identify as animals. Some of the post’s commenters said they would to go to district schools and hurt students.

Nevertheless, the lie has been repeated by right-wingers, including by Nebraska Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R).

During a televised debate, Bostelman claimed that student “furries” were allowed to interact with teachers by meowing and barking. He also said that one student who was denied a litter box later defecated on a classroom floor. Bostelman later admitted that the story wasn’t true.

The furry hoax has been spread online by anti-LGBTQ+ activists like Chaya Raichik of LibsofTikTok, when she pushed a lie that a second-grade Texas schoolteacher encouraged students to become furries. The Austin school district disavowed the claim as misinformation.

Similarly, Christian hate pastor Aaron Thompson and anti-LGBTQ televangelist Andrew Wommack both said that schools allow students to identify as animals and demand litter boxes in classrooms. Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock also repeated the lie, as did Heidi Ganahl, the Republican candidate for governor of Colorado. She claimed that student “furries” are identifying as cats in over 30 different schools in the state. Many of the schools released statements contradicting her claim. She ended up losing her race.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has claimed that a father in Michigan told her that his son got into trouble when he stepped on the tail of a student who identified as a furry.

Reuters published a fact check in July that said there is “no evidence of them disrupting classrooms or schools developing a policy of including them as a formal identity.”

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