GOP bill would have animal control remove furries from schools

After several years of conservatives panicking over false stories of schools accommodating student furries by letting them use litterboxes instead of toilets, a GOP lawmaker is finally doing something to address the non-problem: He’s getting animal control involved.

Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Humphrey (R) introduced H.B. 3084, which would ban students from acting like animals in schools.

Related:

GOP lawmaker decries furries in schools

“If they say they feel like that, do I have to recognize it?” she complained.

“Students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animal species, or who engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities,” Humphrey’s bill states. It adds that a parent or guardian will have to pick up the student and take them home “or animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student.”

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The urban legend that schools are being overrun by students in animal costumes started getting traction in early 2022 as an argument to attack transgender students’ right to an equal education. But it has since taken on a life of its own.

In March 2022, Nebraska Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) said in a televised debate that students in the state would “dress up as animals, cats or dogs, during the school day. They meow and they bark, and they interact with their school, with the teachers in this fashion.”

“And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?” Bostelman asked incredulously. He later apologized for repeating the fake story.

Last year, Illinois state Sen. Andrew Chesney (R) brought up furries in a debate about gendered language in state law.

“We can do all the gender feel-good garbage, but this is why your kids are confused. This is why your kids are dressing up as furries and kitty litter is in their bathrooms,” he said as several members of the state house started laughing at him. “There are two genders! There are two genders possible! There’s not three, there’s not four, there’s two.”

Schools across the country – and even in Canada – had to write letters to parents explaining that they aren’t accommodating students who pretend to be animals during school hours as federal elected officials like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and popular conservatives in the media like Joe Rogan promoted the urban legend. But even that wasn’t enough, as many conservatives – often those without school-age children – continued to blame schools for accommodating furries and even accused schools of lying to cover up the problem.

While litterboxes supposedly being provided by school officials are often central to the re-tellings of this false story, Humphrey’s bill doesn’t address schools being too lenient with furries and instead only requires a punishment of the students.

Humphrey has a history of attacking LGBTQ+ rights. In 2021, he emailed a woman who asked him to vote against a trans sports ban and said trans people “have a mental illness.”

“I never mind helping to educate the uninformed,” Humphrey wrote condescendingly. “I understand… transgender people have a mental illness.”

“Your insanity certainly is scary,” he wrote to the woman.

Humphrey, a former police officer, stood by his comments when KOCO asked him about them.

“I want to tell your audience there is no transgender. There is male and there is female. And transgender would be a mental health issue,” he said. “So those people that say I’m bigoted, I will say you’re insane and you’re doing the people wrong by doing that.”

“If anyone wants to get mad, get mad, I don’t care. Guess what: men are men, women are women, end of story, science backs me, logic backs me. Anybody wants to say I’m a bigot, go ahead, you’re wrong.”