The urban legend that won’t die – that students are dressing up as animals and using litterboxes at schools – just got backed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who told people at a rally that school vouchers would enable them to send their kids to schools where furries aren’t running amok.

Texas state Rep. Stan Gerdes (R) introduced the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act (or FURRIES Act, or H.B. 4814), which would punish schools if teachers don’t take action to stop kids from acting like animals in schools. Districts would face a fine of $10,000 for the first such offense and $25,000 for each offense after.

Related

Schools all over are being forced to deal with parents angry about furries & litter boxes
“It’s really frustrating,” one superintendent said after the health department investigated a school in his district for litter boxes.

The bill gives examples of such behaviors, including “meowing,” wearing “leashes” or “animal-like ears,” and “licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance.”

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

For years, the rumor spread on rightwing media and social media that schools were accommodating student-furries. The myth was often brought up during discussions of school accommodations for transgender students, intended as a rejoinder: if schools are allowing trans students to attend school as their authentic selves when it comes to gender, then what’s to stop furries from demanding to be treated like animals?

The rumor spread and school districts across the U.S. – and even in Canada – were forced to send letters to parents telling them that there are no furries in their schools and that students aren’t allowed to behave like animals in class.

One of the more extreme versions of the urban legend included the detail that the furries were using litterboxes (sometimes even in classrooms and not in the restroom), and no one could stop them because the supposedly woke school administration required teachers to accommodate them. That detail made an appearance in Gerdes’ FURRIES Act, which specifically bans “using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine, or other human byproducts.”

Gov. Abbott even lent his support for the FURRIES Act earlier this month at a rally in Austin.

“In some small rural sections of school districts in the state of Texas, they have in their schools, what are called furries. Y’all know what this is?” he told the crowd. The Houston Chronicle reports that people shouted “yeah” in response.

“Kids go to school dressed up as cats with litter boxes in their classrooms,” he falsely stated, not naming the rural school districts he was referring to. When asked for further comment, his office said that “countless parents” are “growing frustrated at the quality of schools.”

Abbott then pushed school vouchers at the rally, saying that they would allow parents to send their kids to private schools and avoid “the pervasive woke leftist agenda that’s being forced on our kids in our public schools.”

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 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 2022 that said there is “no evidence of them disrupting classrooms or schools developing a policy of including them as a formal identity.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.