TX: Furry Panic Is Back

It has been three years and change since the Great Furry Panic first swept school policy circles. 

Patient Zero for this fake story seems to be Michigan's Midland Public Schools board meeting in December of 2021, at which a mother spoke claiming she was informed that litter boxes had been added in bathrooms for students who "identify as cats", calling it a "nationwide" issue and pointing to an "agenda that is being pushed" (a "nefarious" one). The co-chair of the Michigan GOP promoted the stories ("Parent heroes will TAKE BACK our schools), and before you could say crazy-pants disinformation campaign, the story was being covered by Buzzfeed, USA Today, and the New York Times.

There's also a theory that the post-Columbine practice of keeping an emergency bucket in the classroom  in case students are trapped there by another gunman. Some schools include kitty litter in their emergency bucket.

At any rate, the story spread through the far right dope-o-sphere. Folks started noting the spread of furry panic back at the beginning of 2022. There are schools, the story goes, that allow students to self-identify as animals, wear their furry costumes, eat sitting on the floor, do their business in litter boxes. So far there has not been a single factual foundation for any of these stories. Nor, for that matter, do the stories get it right when it comes to Furry culture and behavior (furries do not, for instance, wear their outfits to work and insist on acting as animals or pooping by their desks). But it didn't matter. 

2022 was a banner year for furry panic.

In Colorado, the GOP candidate for governor has tripled down on the claim that students are self-identifying as animals throughout the Denver with the support of their school districts, despite repeated debunking and denials. 

Minnesota also has a GOP gubernatorial candidate who repeated the litter box claim, despite debunking.

In Tennessee, school leaders had to take time to respond to a litter box claim by a state senator. 

South Carolina districts felt the need to respond to litter box stories. In Wyoming, parents told a board they were worried that furries were covered in equality policies. And Rhode Island. And Pennsylvania. And New York. And Illinois. And Oregon. Oh, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, too.

In Nebraska, in a rare apology, a state senator had to admit that the furry rumor he had repeated was baloney in March. In Texas, a GOP house candidate went with the relatively milder "lowered tables" story in January. A South Dakota school district had to explain to a parent in July that no, they would not be putting in litter boxes for furry students. Maine was battling back the litter box rumors in May. In April, a Wisconsin school district had to explain that they have no "furry protocol."

The whole hoax even has its own Wikipedia page. 

There has never been a single confirmed incident, ever.

And yet.

Texas has HB 54, "Relating to the display of and allowance for non-human behaviors in Texas schools." Also known as the "Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (F.U.R.R.I.E.S.) Act." The bill has five legislators signed on as authors, and a whopping 51 co-authors. Governor Greg Abbott backs the bill. There are 22 pages of public comments compiled, and some of them are just as silly as you expect.

[W]e are tired of DEI, distractions, and affirmation of FURRY behavior in schools. Children should be learning how to read and excel in math, not playing make-believe at school. Please specifically write into the Code of Conduct that this behavior is not acceptable in schools or in society. In all K-12 schools.
Keatha Brown

Moms for Liberty, Montgomery TX

Children attend school are there to learn reading, writing, math, science, etc. I do respect each person has their own individual style when they dress but what I don't approve of is children attending school dressed like an animal and pretending, acting and portraying that they are indeed an animal. Its a distraction to other children attending classes at school and teachers and staff already have enough challenges in schools and they don't need these additional types of behaviors to deal with. Children shouldn't be acting like animals, making sounds like animals, wanting to eat like or dressing like animals. If they truly feel like they are an animal, they should be referred to a mental health professional. This would also go along the lines of a child wanting to be an alien
Jennifer White

Moms For Liberty Williamson County Round Rock, TX

Please support HB 54. I have been in education over 45 years. Non- human behaviors should not be accepted or catered to in public schools. What cat learns to read?
Susan Perez
Citizens for Education Reform
Lubbock, TX

And more in the same vein. The vast majority of the comments are opposed to the bill, hitting it with terms like "silly," "ridiculous," "stupid," and "waste of time." The Libertarian Party of Texas opposes it. Many accused the legislature of trying to solve a non-existent problem. Many tell stories of small children who like to play in ways that sometimes include animal noises. The parent of an autistic child explains how fur-like materials soothe the child. 

The bill itself is remarkably specific in defining "non-human behavior" with nine or so items on the list of "behaviors of accessories" not typically "displayed by a member of the homo sapiens species."  No animal noise, tails, ears, or licking yourself for "purposes of grooming or maintenance." There are exceptions for Halloween and school mascots or plays. 

But it's worth noting that the bill goes way beyond the standard furry litter box panic to target any sort of animal-ish behavior-- ears on headbands, tails, animal noises (like children don't make inhuman noises on a regular basis). 

The bill comes from Rep. Stan Gerdes. Gerdes was endorsed last year by Greg Abbott when he was up against Tom Glass, who was endorsed by AG Ken Paxton. Gerdes did vote for vouchers, but he also voted for the impeachment of Paxton. He previously worked under Rick Perry both when Perry was Texas governor and as US Secretary of Energy. He won his first election to the House in 2022, then again last year. Both campaigns were pricey-- $600K in 2022 and almost a million in 2024 (just for the primary). 

At Tuesday night's hearing, he claimed that the bill was in response to stories about furries that have been denied by the district superintendent. Asked if he could cite a single confirmed instance of a school making furry accommodations, Gerdes said he could not, even though he originally came out swinging, as reported by Benjamin Wermund at the Houston Chronicle:

When Gerdes introduced the legislation 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.

"Just to be clear - they won't be getting any litter boxes in the Texas Capitol," the Smithville Republican said in a press release announcing the bill.

But there were no so-called furries or litter boxes at the late-night hearing Tuesday. Instead, the 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.

Rep. James Talarico labeled the bill as one more attempt by Abbott and his crew to discredit public schools:

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.

 It's a bill designed to create furor over a non-existent problem. Currently the bill is sitting in committee, and if there is a lick of sense left in some corners of Texas, it will never emerge from there.