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.
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.
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
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.
Besides them being stupid as hell to conduct this ridiculous culture war, I take issue with another thing, the name:
Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education
It's not unlawful until you forbid it. So the title makes no sense. You're not forbidding the unlawful. You're forbidding the previously lawful, making it unlawful.
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?
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.
Any behavior humans do is human behavior, this law is legally dubious at best. Mimicking animals has been a human thing since humans came to be.
Okay seriously, did someone write this law just so it could be contested in court??
The forbidden non human speech is written as onomatopoeias. Like how can you call that stuff nonhuman speech after literally writing it in human language? If I read this part of the law out loud am I violating the law?
I could also see the rights to perform cultural religious dances being infringed upon by this law.
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”.
Man they keep coming back to the litterbox thing, it really freaks them tf out. Even though its been debunked dozens of time, my conservative friends all swear they know a guy that knows a guy that swears he saw one for real!
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
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".
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.
Maybe the constitution of the United States of America says something about this? Maybe like the first thing in the bill of rights? Nah I must be mistaken.
i cannot begin to describe how utterly fucking stupid this is.
I genuinely thought i died and went to hell when i first read this, this bill doesn't even make any fucking sense. Child exhibiting "non human behaviors" could be considered "child abuse" according to this bill.
Fascists are so stupid, they start to believe their own propaganda. Can't even remember, or at least be bothered to remember, that they made this up to scare normies.
I feel they put more effort into coming up with an acronym that into planning the actual act. I’m pretty sure in the early 90s punk phase people wore collars for fashion too.
How about focusing all this effort and passing a bill to prevent officers being pussies during an active shooter situation like in Uvalde??
What world do these people live in? I just can't imagine this is a issue and i imagine that passing a law like this will just lead to kids definitely shitting in litter boxes because breaking the law is fun, imagine the court case of a kid dressed like a cat and pissed in a box.. straight to jail
Also why are they legislating about this. Texas schools have real problems like gun violence and illiteracy. Furries and animal role play are just things some people have always done that don't really harm anyone and given how they persist across so many cultures and times could actually be considered a natural behavior of homo sapiens like parrots' mimicry
Fuck how the heck they find double entendre.acronyms for any shit they pull.
Coincidentally eat shit assholes what the fuck did those poor people do to you? I don't consider myself a furry but have friends that does.
Make reactionaries angry at this law by saying it bans children from wearing fur.
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
what kind of kinky ass school mascots do Texans have
What is it with them and this absolute conviction that kids are pretending to be cats, it's literally not happening and yet they're upset about it.
If they are going to make things up and then be upset about those made up things can they not come up with something less weird than kids being cats? Why not be upset about all the Dark Lords in schools, or the uptake in alien abductions?
I bark at them using my very human vocal cords (I don't even have any other). Prove me on court that I was not using human vocal cords to bark. Or maybe I was using totally non-human made recording-speaker device?
Or maybe my 1.7m tall fursuit was designed to be weared by my cat? No way even lololong house cat could be that big. (lie, I don't own a fursuit, in any size, but point still apply).
Oh I know! Some tailed buttplugs were totally designed for pets and it is all about being pet care!
I admit that I block the furry and all its sexual representation on fedi when I see it. It doesn't turn me on that much and feels weird. But that's the same feeling a woman or man would have towards a gay person of the same sex or similar of different gender. This is sexism at its core. WTF!
In these trying times republicans are banning ghosts and bigfoots, which are real and legitimate concerns and not fake anecdotes that have spiralled out of control in some kind right wing fetish news circles.
And if I identity as an extraterrestrial autonomous exploration and research unit, with a general mission directive of learning about humanity first hand?