A freshly filed bill brings the topic of furries in Texas schools to the House. The bill,Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act, pet-named the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act, would ban students from observing “non-human behaviors,” which include, but are not limited to, meowing, barking and hissing; wearing a tail, collar, or ears; and licking oneself in a grooming manner.
The F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act, filed by Rep. Stan Gerdes, a Republican lawmaker from Central Texas, does not apply to any specific age group, and instead blankets all students at Texas schools, at the public and private level. The only exceptions are mascots, designated dress-up days and children participating in performances.
The bill follows a debunked right-wing conspiracy theory that teachers were providing students who identify as cats with litter boxes. Indeed, a section of the bill explicitly prohibits “using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine, or other human byproducts.” The only verified account of a litter box in a classroom is in Colorado, where teachers were given buckets with litter as emergency bathrooms in the event of an active shooter.
If passed, teachers’ failure to correct nonexistent non-human behaviors would be “abuse” by “allowing or encouraging a child to develop a dependence on or a belief that non-human behaviors are societally acceptable.” School districts with employees who do not correct the behavior are subject to a $10,000 fine for the first offense and $25,000 for every offense after.
“No distractions. No theatrics. Just education,” Gerdes wrote on X. “While school mascots, theater performances, and dress-up days remain part of school spirit, this bill ensures that students and teachers can focus on academics — not on bizarre and unhealthy disruptions. Texas schools are for educating kids, not indulging in radical trends.”
The act directly targets furries, people with an interest in anthropomorphic animals, many of which adopt personal characters referred to as “fursonas.” The most dedicated furries have full-body, fully-customized suits, mirroring mascot suits, which can cost thousands of dollars. The furry community is multi-layered and encompasses an expansive culture, and while there is a sexual component for parts of the furry community, that isn’t the case for all furries.
“We have worked very hard as a community to downplay the adult aspects of it because they are taken out of context,” said Andrew Kaiser, a furry who fled Texas because of conservative politics. “They section off a portion of the community; it’s very clickbait.”
Kaiser does not publicly disclose his fursona for professional reasons but was a member of the North Texas furry community before moving. Kaiser, a gay man, said a number of his peers have also left Texas for the same reasons.
“The furry community is dramatically over-representative of the LGBTQ community. That’s pretty well-known at this point. So any legislative discussion or any Republican talking points regarding furries are considered as a proxy attack on that [LGBTQ+] community.”
Several of the bills filed by Republican lawmakers this session have caught attention for pinpointing obscure issues, usually relating to sex or the queer community.
“The fact that this particular bill, explicitly targeting the LGBT community, would be proposed is an attempt to take space away from any of the numerous bills that might economically benefit the state of Texas, is in and of itself an insult to the constituents of that representative district,” he said.
Kaiser pointed out what he views as an obvious flaw with the bill, exhibiting non-human behavior is a part of childhood, and 6-year-olds meow often, he said.
“We all know that children play make-believe,” he said. “Children are encouraged to play make-believe. Disney is currently attempting to make billions of dollars every year encouraging people to identify with cartoon animals.”
Bills similar to Gerdes’s are often billed as ways to protect children from sexually explicit materials and conduct. Bills that address drag performances, sex toys in convenience stores, and what health classes are allowed to present have all been relayed as ways to shield children from undue exposure.
“To pretend that this is any attempt to, quote, unquote, protect children is a disingenuous attack on people that they don’t like,” said Kaiser.
The F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act has been endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and is being used to push his top legislative priority, school vouchers, as reported by theHouston Chronicle.
“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?” Abbott said while speaking to a crowd of pastors in Austin.
Abbott claimed that many children dressed as cats attended school and repeated the rumor about litter boxes in classrooms. He then said parents deserve the right to use school vouchers to send their children to private schools to avoid exposure to furries. The governor and his politically aligned colleagues have been pushing school voucher programs for years, but Abbott said he feels optimistic about the legislation finally passing this session and promised to sign any voucher bill if it reached his desk.
This is not Abbott’s only attempt to use identity politics to push school voucher bills. The governor has honed his efforts on the transgender community. This week he launched an investigation into a Houston teacher who was using a student’s preferred pronouns against parent wishes.
“If the allegations against Bellaire High School are true, then these parental guarantees have been grossly violated,” Abbott said in a letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle. “No parent should have to endure such treatment, and this is another example of why I have long championed school choice in Texas.”
