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.

  • Rooskie91@discuss.online
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    11 hours ago

    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 forbid 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.

  • Bassman27@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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??

  • dontbelasagne@lemmy.world
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    8 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.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    4 hours 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”.

  • orclev@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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.

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I always love using that example to dismiss some concerns about deepfakes sparking national conspiracies.

      Nobody even tried to fake a picture of it. I’ve seen photos on lemmy of people shaving their heads in weird ways or making some horrible bean-themed food just for the karma. Throwing an empty litter box in an empty classroom takes much less effort yet nobody even bothered.

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Beans were just some sort of meme that popped up randomly. I think it was one of those “mods are asleep quick post [x] before they wake up” types of things, and it quickly spiraled until half of everyone’s feed was just beans.

          I was around when it happened, and even I don’t understand it.

    • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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      9 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”.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      8 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.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      3 hours 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.

    • something_random_tho@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      It’s funny a Portuguese person just told me the same story happened in PT to justify anti-trans positions. So it’s the same bullshit story, localized, and repeated.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        12 hours ago

        Just like how antisemitic stereotypes with no basis (blood libel etc.) have been repeated in many countries for hundreds of years. Even before the internet, memes were used for the effective spreading of suspicion and hatred.

      • lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        That’s how this whole “kids are identifying as cats and using litter boxes at school” shitshow started.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Yup, camp toilets are a similar concept. It’s just a 5 gallon hardware store bucket with a snap-on toilet seat lid. You line it with what is essentially a trash bag, just to make disposal easier. Then you use a gelling agent (just like what is in disposable diapers to allow them to soak up a bunch of moisture) to reduce sloshing and smell. It’s handy for when you’re going to be away from toilets for a day or two, but don’t want to (or aren’t able to) dig a hole to shit in.

        But the same concept applies for when you’re going to be trapped somewhere (like a classroom) for an extended period of time. Like, for instance, during a school shooting. When you have 30 kids in a classroom, there’s a very good chance that at least one of them will need to piss after an hour or two. And nobody wants to deal with human waste in something like an open trashcan during a lockdown.

        And as an added bonus, the bucket can be used to store all of active shooter supplies when it’s not in use. So everything is in a single location to quickly grab and prep. Active shooter happens? Great, just grab the big bucket out of the closet, dump all of the supplies out, and you’re ready to go. Now all of your tourniquets, styptic bandages, etc are accessible.

        But it quickly got distorted into “they’re making kids use litter boxes to indoctrinate them” instead.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      6 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.

    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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      12 hours ago

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

      • gibmiser@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        They will say this legislation proves its real. Why else would this legislation exist? I’m sure the lawmakers have all the evidence.

      • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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        10 hours ago

        I’ve just taken to saying “provide me with evidence or shut the fuck up” usually followed closely by “how about one that’s from multiple independent sources and not from a fox opinion piece or personal blog”

    • Norah (pup/it/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 hours ago

      While you’re right about that being fake, it’s just pandering to their base who do take issue with forms of self-expression that are common amongst queer, trans and/or autistic students. Things like wearing a collar, a tail or cat ears are absolutely relatively common and this bill targets those all the same.

      • lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        My daughters love wearing cat-ear headbands. It’s cute, they like it, end of story. Nobody has thrown a fit about it yet… 🤞🤞

    • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 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

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      9 hours ago

      what? absolutely troll these idiots now that you know they are very susceptible.

      just do it in a way they pass good laws out of fear instead.

    • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      The lesson here is to actually troll these idiots, but with stuff that lead to idiotic laws so inconvenient that even their voter base will hate them for it.

      Give them enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves with it.

  • Dimmer@leminal.space
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    12 hours ago

    Forbid child to play animals, they will do it when grow up, just see how much Trump likes to be Putin’s dog.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    11 hours ago

    If you’re still in Texas, and not a furry, GTFO before they criminalize something YOU think is normal and harmless.

  • nthavoc@lemmy.today
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    7 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!

  • regrub@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

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

    • orclev@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Hah, that made me chuckle. I recently attended an outdoor market in my area that for some reason had an unusually high number of furries wandering around it. I was really curious what the bus factor of that market would actually be.

        • orclev@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Yeah in this case I kind of meant the corollary to a bus factor. Essentially if everyone at that market disappeared, how many companies would be severely impacted?

          • lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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            9 hours ago

            No worries, I understood what you meant. It’s like that photo of all the furries on an airplane… Pray it doesn’t crash or else the world infrastructure is done for 😂

    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      12 hours ago

      I’m frankly shocked it hasn’t already, the pay for government IT jobs is kinda shit, and they’ve been trying to slash federal employee benefits for years (theres been recent rumors of increasing mandatory FERS deductions and turning insurance into a voucher program). they’ve started going after anyone LGBTQ+ federally as well.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Ultimately the problem is that that works in their favour. Remember the Republican position is “The Government doesn’t work and if you put me in charge of it I’ll prove it!”, so the only thing they need to do is destroy anything they can get their hands on. The only part of the government they care about (other than their specific seat) is the military. They will gleefully watch everything else burn and then point at the ashes as proof they were right all along.

        • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          10 hours ago

          They piss on the DoD and call it rain too, just not as much. Contractors generally make more than the civilian employees at the cost of potentially getting screwed over at the end of the contract or during a shutdown (realistically, I’ve heard it doesn’t happen that often, they’ll usually just get hired by whoever gets the next contract), and civilian employees just get more stable work hours and benefits (separate annual/sick leave pools, insurance, etc); if shit needs done after hours, they’ll call the active duty folks in, and if they cant make things work it’ll wait till morning.

          Edit; forgot where i was going with this and rambled a bit. TL;DR, they want to replace everyone DoD with contractors and active duty. People who can easily be fired (ran by companies that bribe politicians) and people who can be imprisoned for saying “no.”.

  • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    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

      • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        That’s a really good point I didn’t consider. Just like it was with “eggs”, the “financial responsibility” crap really is just a front they put up in bad faith to avoid admitting that it’s all about racism

  • angrystego@lemmy.world
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    10 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.