this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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The Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education, or FURRIES, Act, filed by Austin-area Republican State Rep. Stan Gerdes, 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."

The law would allow for exempt days, such as Halloween and other school dress-up days.

The law defines "non-human" behavior as "any type of behavior or accessory displayed by a student in a school district other than behaviors or accessories typically displayed by a member of the homo sapiens species," with provided examples being:

Using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine or other human byproducts

A personal or outward display, except during a school play or by a school mascot, through surgical or superficial means of features that are non-human such as using tails, leashes, collars or other accessories designed for pets

Using fur, other than naturally occurring human hair or a wig made to look like human hair

Artificial, animal-like ears

Other physiological features that have not historically been assigned to the human race through a means of natural biological development

Students who bark, meow, hiss or make other animal noises that are not human speech

Licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago

I wonder how much of this is borne out of the hysteria over kids supposedly using litter boxes.

I had some gomer on the Denver Post forums that kept insisting it was not only a thing, but an epidemic. I kept asking him for the supposed evidence of this claim, all he could say was that he "talks to lots and lots of parents and teachers" and "the media won't report on it".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 minutes ago

Can we start torso-kicking these people? Why do we have to be civil?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 hours ago

Filing this under “Closeted conservative so ashamed of their kink that, instead of discussing their feelings with a therapist, psychiatrist, or even a trusted friend, believe everyone must share their taboo thoughts and therefore be preëmptively punished to stamp out the contagion since the only honorable alternative is undergoing apoptosis like some malfunctioning cell”.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Students who bark, meow, hiss or make other animal noises that are not human speech

I'm not quite sure what it is exactly (/s), but maybe—just maybe—this is yet another attempt to fuck over and ostracize transfem and autistic people, but instead of being direct about it, using furries as the boogeyman.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 hours ago

Also to arrest basically any kindergartner.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 hours ago

Imposing this bullshit on children who often have vivid imaginations and like to play make believe shows just how much the Republican party actually cares about children.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 hours ago

Priorities.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 hours ago

So they're scared of people becoming furries. I know a few furries, not in the scene myself but furries are genuinely some of the nicest people I know. And also this bill seems ableist because I knew an autistic person that would growl whenever he had a meltdown. He wasn't a furry, it was just how he was wired.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

"Using tails, leashes, collars" - the B&D crowd isn't going to like that

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Licking oneself or others for the purpose of grooming or maintenance.

Good luck trying to enforce that. Most people lick a small wound on their hands an fingers. It's our subconscious that triggers that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

How will my friends know I care if I can't lick them? (I don't actually have any though, so it's hypothetical)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

And here I was imagining a whole moosey moose squad of which you are a part. Maybe you just need to find each other?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That sounds like it would require leaving the house, which I am less and less inclined to do. Hypothetically though, sure!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Hypothetically, We're Winning! I've known a few introverted Meeses over the years, and am completely sympathetic.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I can’t wait for all IT infrastructure in Texas to get compromised over this. The amount of excellent it and comp sci guys that are furries is staggering. And there are a few online collectives that can and will do damage to personal and government entities over shit like this

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 hours ago

They already lost their porn privileges. Guess they want to lose the rest of the internet, too 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 36 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Texans, next time you look at the prices in the grocery store, remember that this is what your representatives are spending their time on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Or, you know, when your kids are dying of measles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Or when your kids are dying from school shooters...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago

Good thing made up stories from social media prompt lawmakers to pass laws at record breaking speed rather than do something about the fires burning right in front of them. Let's see what other bullshit that can be made up to get things done!

[–] [email protected] 176 points 9 hours ago (20 children)

Man they are still caught up on that fake story somebody sent to one of these morons claiming kids were using litter boxes in school. It never happened but they're going to try to legislate it away anyway.

The lesson here is don't troll these idiots, they'll fucking believe it and then start passing idiotic laws for non-problems.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 56 minutes ago

These are the same sort of dumbfucks that absolutely believed the "LSD stickers/tattoos" bullshit way, way back and would insist on schools passing out flyers based on that stupid urban legend.

I remember being in sixth grade when they had a bout of that going around our school, and I was like, wait, what? And I had a lot of doubts. And that's when I was in sixth grade. Years later, you could look it up and see what nonsense it was. Anyway, I was at TWO different jobs where someone was trying to "inform parents" with some printouts they had about you guessed it, the bullshit LSD stickers nonsense. The first time, I told them "you know, this is urban legend, right?" I get immediately treated like I'm some kind of criminal that does not want to protect the children.

I suspect the bullshit around litter boxes will have a similar lifetime among those that are hard of thinking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

IIRC it did have a hint of truth, like most things do. They then spun a totally different story from it. The hint of truth is it was for school shootings where they couldn't leave the classroom for an extended period of time.

Instead of addressing the real issue, which is that school shootings have become so common that preparations like this need to be made, they spun it into a story that the schools were pandering towards furries. As always, it's all smoke and mirrors to keep people distracted and give them an enemy, so they don't force representatives to actually help them.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 hours ago

The lesson here is don't troll these idiots, they'll fucking believe it and then start passing idiotic laws for non-problems.

Throwback to when 4chan started memeing about pizzas, and the resulting chain of events led to a real pizza parlor being shot up by a right-wing nut job who thought it was full of pedophiles.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

The weird thing is for some reason people will lie to perpetuate these falsehoods

Like I do therapy and I talk to teenagers regularly because teenagers need mental health support, obviously. And sometimes they’ll bring up shit like this: “my school installed a litter box because of these woke kids”

But even the most basic of prodding: “did they really” with a tone of like “come on” and they’ll backpedal, “well no, but like there are kids that have fursonas and shit”

It’s crazy to see it start so young. They’re realizing at like 16 they can get adults to gang up on the kid they think is weird by being dishonest, and adults buy into it because it’s a chance to bully someone weaker and politicians jump on it because it’s a new wedge issue to distract people from class consciousness

And what’s crazy is that by some perspectives if I call them out on this dishonesty and point out this cycle I’m indoctrinating them

[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

And when you try and tell anyone who bought it they say there is evidence, while never being able to provide any.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago

The lesson here is don't troll these idiots, they'll fucking believe it and then start passing idiotic laws for non-problems.

Exactly this. Just like flat earthers (and that super bizarre one about time cubes or whatever), the rubes will gobble it up and eventually people will get hurt over it.

Another one is the Birds Aren't Real meme, which I think is pretty funny, but you just know that an innocent birdwatcher will get shot some day because an extremely mentally unwell person will assume that they're some government spook checking on the "drones".

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 hours ago

So children are not allowed to play anymore. It breaks my heart knowing how important expressing the connection to a favourite animal is for many kids. I know nazis go for easy targets, but the fact they target children is just nauseating to me.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Wow.

I remember learning about dinosaurs as an elementary schooler after Jurassic Park came out, and spending a few months on the playground pretending to be a velociraptor (well technically they're closer to deinonychous but w/e) ... apparently that is now banned, because otherwise I might have become a scaly, for life?

Wonderful.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago

Former pterodactyl from third grade here

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

apparently that is now banned, because otherwise I might have become a scaly, for life?

I'm not seeing a denial...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago

Closest I ever got to being a scaly was... enjoying those old dinosaur comics from almost two decades ago, where the gimmick was it was the exact same 4 panels every time, buy with different dialogue?

But uh no, I do not have a ... scale suit? Scale-sona? I don't even know if thats the right terminology.

I just had a few friends who were DeviantArtists decades ago, and am vaguely aware via osmosis that there is a subset of furries with dino personas.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

There is no way this is real, is it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Only in clown country 🎪🇺🇸

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

We live in a parody.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 9 hours ago (7 children)

They're going after easy targets like schools because if they targeted furries in the state government, all of the IT infrastructure would crumble.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

Play Duck Duck Goose? Jail

Face paint? Beleive it or not Jail

Old McDonald? Straight to jail

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

Leapfrog? Execution.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It’s incredible that republicans can constantly waste tax dollars on worthless shit like this and still be viewed as the party of financial responsibility by their dumb ass voting base

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Bigotry is a big seller with that crowd.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 9 hours ago (6 children)

Can we still say "what's up, dawg?"

It is funny that the litter box story was taken as gospel.

What a time to be alive.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago

Depends on who you are. If you’re Brock the quarterback, you’ll be fine. If you look a bit queer or neurodivergent or are from a racialised minority, probably not a good idea.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Man, republicans really fucking hate freedom.

“You are only allowed to express yourself in ways that are approved by the state!”

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