Hey guys? Oklahoma wants to call animal control on kids who engage with furry culture

House Bill 3084, sponsored by Oklahoma Representative Justin Humphrey [R], would prohibit students who are furries from attending school or participating in curriculum and school events. stating that parents or guardians would be required to pickup their children from school else the school will be required to Call Animal Control

If you're a furry you don't get to go to school (not that Oklahoma gives you much of an education anyway) but we can't ignore that this is likely another attempt to compress lgbtq+ students and people with otherwise nonstandard hobbies into conformity. Knowing that the online furry community is heavily saturated with nonbinary and queer individuals.

↓The Bill summary PDF ↓

Wait, what legislation against furries?

Legislation Alert

So one of the most direct anti-alterhuman and anti-furry bills has now been filed in Oklahoma. The chances it will be put into law are, I'm sure, fairly small, but certainly not zero. This information is brand new as of just a few hours ago. With a bill like this being filed now, especially if it gets any further toward being a law, I'm sure we can expect more like it (and potentially more harsh) to follow.

This bill is clearly more targeted at therians and otherkin and other nonhuman identifying folks, but since people think that these all fall under the "furry" umbrella, they specifically state that they are targeting furries - this means that those who are just furries could still be impacted as well.

(IMG ID: A screenshot of House Bill 3084 for the 2024 session which, most importantly, reads: "Be it enacted by the people of the state of Oklahoma: Section 1. New Law. A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 11-301 of Title 70, unless there is created a dupilcation in numbering, reads as follows: 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. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall pick the student up from the school, or animal control services shall be contacted to removed the student." Edits by the screenshot taker include: the paragraph starting at 'Students who purport...' is highlighted in yellow, and the line starting at 'animal control services shall...' is underlined in red with animal control services being underlined twice.)

One anti-furry bill died, the other two wait to be heard

(This blog post was originally posted on the Otherkin News blog on DreamWidth by Orion Scribner on March 24, 2024.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from going to school or using facilities, and outing children to their parents. A straw-man version of furries being used to try to discredit transgender people, in a way that could cause trouble for people who identify as nonhuman.

So far this year, Republicans have proposed three pieces of legislation that are opposed to furries or people who identify as nonhuman. That’s something they started doing last year, inspired by an urban legend about litter boxes in public schools, which they made up in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms. We’ve been ending up calling these “anti-furry bills” as we keep track of them in our Otherkin News blog. Furry isn’t the accurate word, but it is the word that Republicans use in the urban legend and usually in the bills too. Every once in a while, I’m checking on the status of the bills, and trying to see if there are any new ones. Here is the update for this week.

1. Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084) “Schools; prohibiting certain students from participating in school curriculum or activities; effective date.”

Background: We wrote about this bill in detail in a previous Otherkin News post. The bill says that furry students should be taken out of school by animal control. Its only sponsor (writer) is Justin Humphrey (he/him). This seems linked with his opposition to LGBTQ people, as well as his efforts to legalize animal fighting. Later, Jim Olsen (he/him) took over as principal sponsor of the bill. He proposed changing it to have the same text as an unrelated bill of his, one requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Update: The bill’s current status hasn’t changed since our last update. It’s still at 25% progression toward becoming a law. Its text hasn’t changed from what it was originally, so it's still about furries.

2. Mississippi House Bill 176 (MS HB 176) “Gender dysphoria; require school personnel to notify parents of student who request to be referred to as different gender or nonhuman.”

Background: This was introduced at the same time as the first bill. As we previously wrote about it, the bill is mostly against transgender students in a way that could put them in real danger. It would require schools to out transgender students to parents, and to allow faculty to not accommodate any student who “identif[ies] at school as a gender or pronoun that does not align with the child's sex on their birth certificate, other official records, sex assigned at birth, or identifying as an animal species, extraterrestrial being or inanimate object.”

Update: This bill’s current status is dead! Hooray! It died in committee on March 3. When a bill dies, that means that it won’t progress toward becoming a law.

3. Missouri House Bill 2678 (MO HB 2678) “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school”

Background: We previously wrote about this bill. The bill says to pull students out of school for being furries or purporting to be animals. The bill’s only sponsor is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). This appears to be connected with her opposition to transgender people as well as her efforts to undermine public schools in favor of charter schools.

Updates: This bill hasn’t changed or moved forward. It’s still the same as it was when it was introduced. A hearing hasn’t been scheduled for it, and it’s not on a House calendar.

-

About the writer: This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (they/them), who has been a community historian and archivist for more than ten years.

Humphrey's bill, House Bill 3084, would ban "students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animalspecies, or who engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries at school" from participating in class and school activities. The bill would require parents or guardians to pick the student up from school. But, if parents are unable to pick the student up, the bill says "animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student."

Treating children as animals to protect the children.

A student behaving like a silly goose in Oklahoma could soon be hauled out of class by animal control.

State Rep. Justin Humphrey introduced a bill on Tuesday that would ban furries from public schools across the state — and allow animal control to round up those who defy the proposed law.

“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,” House Bill 3084 states.

The legislation would require parents or guardians to pick up their child from school. Otherwise, “animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student,” the bill states.

If passed, the law would take effect in November.

The Republican lawmaker — who previously proposed creating a Bigfoot hunting season in the state — did not expand on the definition of furry-esque behavior or what kind of animalistic mannerisms or dress would get a kid kicked out of the classroom.

Humphrey did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Although the bill itself doesn’t include a goal or reasoning for its existence, Humphrey previously said it was to deter children from identifying as animals.

“People are going to call me insane for running this bill. Hell, I’d say they’re insane,” he said in a video.

State Rep. Justin Humphrey called for sending furries “to the pound.” X/@paytonnmay

“If you got an animal coming to school: how about we get them vaccinated? How about we get them neutered and how about we send them to the pound?���

The Republican seemingly pointed to a bogus rumor that a Michigan school district was providing litter boxes for students who identified as “furries.”

The story was swiftly debunked as a tall tale last year.

“I don’t want to see some kid go into the bathroom in a litter box, in the kitty litter. Those people up bear have lost their mind letting these people pretend to be animals in the classroom,” he continued in his rant about a fake story.

“If they’re gonna be animals. Let’s send them to the pound, let’s send them home. How do you teach a cat math?”

There are an estimated 250,000 people in the US who identify as “furries,” a subculture whose members enjoy dressing up as cartoonish animals, sometimes as a sexual fetish but more often as a fun escape. _________________

Someone really wanted their name in the news, I can't wait for the protest outside his office to happen.

It'll be nuts

An Oklahoma Republican legislator introduced legislation aimed at furries in schools. It's even dumber than that sounds.

An Oklahoma Republican lawmaker, state Rep. Justin Humphrey, has introduced a controversial bill seemingly targeting students who identify as furries in schools. This development comes as thousands of bills are being filed before the 2024 Oklahoma legislative sessions, many of which are unlikely to become law. House Bill 3084 prohibits students who claim to be imaginary animals or engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly associated with the furry subculture from participating in school activities, The Oklahoman reports. Under the proposed legislation, parents or guardians must pick up these students from school. In an unprecedented move, if parents cannot do so, the bill mandates that animal control services should be contacted to remove the student. Humphrey's proposal aligns with a broader conservative narrative that has seen similar unfounded claims being made nationwide. These claims have been widely debunked, often involving myths about schools accommodating students who identify as animals. Despite this, conservative politicians, including Humphrey, continue to push this narrative. In Oklahoma, the myth of schools providing litter boxes for students identifying as animals, though thoroughly disproven, has found traction in political discourse. Humphrey's history of sponsoring contentious bills is well-documented. Notably, in 2017, he introduced a bill that sought to give men a say in abortion decisions, calling women "hosts." He has also attempted to lessen penalties for cockfighting in the state.

If I were a Democrat in the Oklahoma legislature (there are a few!) I'd introduce legislation forbidding boneheads from holding elective office in the state. Not only would Justin Humphrey's seat be instantly declared vacant, but Republicans would lose control of the state overnight.

The bizarre cat litter conspiracy theory has its origins with something the NRA-infested GOP doesn't like to discuss – school shootings.

In an October 2022 investigation of more than 20 conservative lawmakers making claims about litter boxes in schools, NBC News reported, "There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats." The report found one instance of a bucket, which was for emergencies. The bucket did contain cat litter for students to use in case of a situation like a school shooting. Those also contained first-aid kits and candy for diabetics.

Justin Humphrey is yet another reason we need to pay A LOT more attention to who sits in our state legislatures.

Check to see who represents you at your state capital. If they are MAGA Republicans, contact your county or state Democratic Party to find out how to help elect Dems to replace them.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

US politician propose "banning" furries from schools

中文：美国俄克拉荷马州政客提议 “禁止”兽迷参加学校活动 A law proposal was raised in the US state of Oklahoma. On Jan 18, 2024 (Thursday), State Rep. Justin Humphrey of the Republican Party raised up House Bill 3084. The bill aims to specifically ban furries from participating in school curriculum or activities. If the bill is passed, student offenders will be brought out of school by animal control if a parent or…

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971.

5k Survey LX

Is it true that you... 3051. are politically correct? >> I don’t know what this actually means and I’m not inclined to try and figure it out. 3052. are too nice to say how you feel? >> I don’t say how I feel not out of niceness but because I don’t comprehend why anyone would want that information. 3053. don't think the world government affects you? >> The “world government”? What on earth is that? 3054. think that all people who are fat are ugly? >> False. 3055. think all people who are thin are shallow? >> False. For the record, I don’t think of people in general terms like this often at all.

3056. think you are getting solid information from advertisements? >> I don’t pay attention to advertisements. They have nothing to offer me. 3057. don't research the products you use? >> No, I don’t. Not unless I’m given reason to. Otherwise, that’s a lot of time and energy to spend for little return. 3058. believe that the lives of the people you love are somehow more important than the lives of the 6 billion other peeople in the world? >> Of course they’re more important -- to me. That’s how it works. I don’t comprehend how it could work any other way, tbh. 3059. believe that the lives of your country men or woman are somehow more valuble than the lives of people from other countries? >> I don’t care about people based on what country they’re in... it’s about their connection to me, like I just agreed a question ago. 3060. believe your ideas are somehow worth more than the ideas of others? >> Worth more in what sense? Like, my ideas are important to me because... they’re mine. Other people’s ideas can be interesting. Sometimes I adopt them and other times I ignore them and yet other times I’m just neutral to them. I don’t know what else to say about this. 3061. repress things rather than deal with them? >> I try not to repress things. It’s a long-standing habit and I’m working on it. 3062. mindlessly self indulge? >> I don’t mindlessly do anything. 3063. think there is only one right way? >> To what? 3064. think that this one right way could possibly be right for ALL of the 6 billion people on this planet? >> --- 3065. Decide something is UNTRUE just because you don't AGREE with it or you don't LIKE it? >> If I don’t like a fact, then I just don’t like it. I’m not going to declare that it’s not a fact, I’m just going to complain about it. 3066. What do you think of the out-dated chinese custom of foot-binding (tieing a baby girl's toes under her foot, even if you have to break the bone, making her walk with her toes under her foot(or hobble) because chinease men like small fett)? >> What am I supposed to think about it? I don’t think I need to have an opinion about this. 3067. What do you think of plastic surgery? >> Nothing? Like, it’s a thing that exists and people have it done sometimes. What of it? 3068. Is there a difference between foot binding and plastic surgery? What? Are there any similarities between foot-binding and plastic surgery? What? >> The similarity is that they’re both body modification. The differences are everything else, I guess. 3069. Would you be likely to continue reading a book that began: 'It was a bright, defrosted, pussy-willow day at the onset of Spring, and the newlyweds were driving cross-country in a large roast turkey.'? >> Probably not. 3070. If I don't quit smoking then I will sing a song. If I sing a song then I either play an instrument or run a mile. I do not play an instrument or run a mile. Therefore I quit smoking. Is this a valid argument? >> I cannot parse this. 3071. What came first, the acorn or the tree? >> I guess the acorn did. Who knows. 3072. What is surrealism? If you were putting together a surrealist work of art, what would you do? >> I’m sure Wikipedia has a great breakdown on the surrealist movement. I have no interest in being a surrealist artist. 3073. What did you do on Halloween? >> Last Halloween I was in New Orleans on my honeymoon and we went out in ostentatious goth outfits and had a great time. 3074. Some bees have made a comfortable nest for the winter inside your air conditionar. How would you remove the air conditioner from the window? >> The air conditioner is built into our unit, I doubt it’s removeable by the average tenant. The maintenance crew can take care of the bees. 3075. Why is quiet contemplation important? >> I consider it important because it’s a way to sort out my thoughts without having my attention fractured or monopolised by the rest of the world (especially the digital part of the world). It’s important to me to be acquainted with the colour and expanse of my interior life. 3076. Do you spend lots of time in quiet contemplation? How about any time? If not, what distracts you? >> Not lots of time, no. Some time, sure. 3077. What is the lowest you have ever felt? >> Er, low enough to plan suicide? I don’t know how else to answer this? 3078. Who has changed your life dramatically for the better? >> Can Calah. 3079. Is all you christmas shopping done? >> I don’t do Christmas shopping. 3080. Who is the greatest writer you can think of and why? >> --- 3081. Are people either good or evil? >> --- 3082. Can people be BOTH good an evil? >> --- 3083. Is there good in a rapist or a murderer? Is there evil in Mother Thereasa? >> --- 3084. You are in a classroom setting. A teacher has asked for a surrealist project. One person comes in with cards. Each card has a picture. Some of the pictures are a breast, a penis, a urinal, open heart surgery, a woman sucking on a vaccum tube, etc. On the back of each picture is a phrase like 'Fuck you and all of your lesbian fish eating friends' or 'people who speak in metaphors oughtta shampoo my crotch'. The artist asks each person to take a random card, go around the room and at their turn hold up the card with the picture side out and read the phrase on the back. Would you do it? >> This... is legitimately making no sense to me. What the fuck is this. How would you feel about it? What do you think the artist's intent is? 3085. Are you satisfied? >> With what? 3087. How fast do you drive? >> I don’t drive. 3088. What do you want that you don't need? >> All the time in the world to play FFXIV to my heart’s content. 3089. What do you have that you wish you didn't? >> Bills. 3090. What does it mean when someone suggests that you don't own your possessions, they own you? >> As I understand it, they are speaking of the pitfalls of consumerism and placing too much value on acquisition for acquisition’s sake. Or they’re just zealously anti-stuff and probably run a minimalism channel on Youtube. 3091. Where do you get motivation? >> I don’t bother with the nebulous concept of motivation. I just figure out how to work with my brain to get things done without making myself feel like shit in the process. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t. That’s just the way it is. 3092. Did you ever wanna get with one of your teachers? Did you ever actually get with one? >> Considering my fucked-up social development, I don’t think I actually understood what I wanted when I thought I wanted to be intimate with a teacher. Or any adult who showed me positive (or “positive”) attention, at that point. 3093. Have you ever had this happen, where one day you completely believe one thing and the next day you don't believe it anymore? If yes, do you lie about your change of beliefs in order to appear consistant? >> I mean, maybe. Not sure if it happened quite that dramatically; sometimes I don’t notice my own views shifting and it might seem like I just “woke up one day and believed something different” but in reality it was a gradual process that happened behind the scenes. I usually just go along with it and if someone has a problem with me changing my mind then I know damn well that’s their problem, not mine. 3094. Do you hide things about yourself from others? If so why? Is it because you are afriad they will be scared? Or because YOU are scarred? >> I hide things about myself from others because I have trust issues and intimacy issues and have a major problem with vulnerability. 3095. Do you recognize that some part of you is evil or do you feel like you are all good? >> --- 3096. If everyone were flying flags and putting up yellow ribbons in honor of the people who died in a war and someone put up black bows and ribbons all over the top of therir house what would you think? Would you want them to take it down? Why? >> I wouldn’t think anything. I don’t understand why this would even warrant my attention. 3097. Is a foot massage meaningless or does it have implications? >> Yawn. 3098. Are you sick of technology yet? >> No? 3099. After tattoos and piercings, I believe the next big thing will be implants (horns, metal plates, etc) and after that will come genetic alteration (wings, purple skin, etc). Would you have any of this done to you? Would you let your kids have it done? What do you think the next big thing in body modification would be? >> I doubt any of this stuff would be accessible to me (financially, particularly), first of all. I also don’t trust humans enough to let them mess around with my whole ass genome even if it was accessible to me. 3100. What's the most insulting thing you could come up with to say to someone? >> *shrug* I think insults are most effective when they’re tailored to the individual, not just a generic pejorative word or phrase.

I like Bill S. 3084 - IRONICALLY

I was in favour of Bill S. 3084 before the U.S. House of Representatives decided to vote on it... Nevermind. You've probably never heard of it.

I like Bill S. 3084 - IRONICALLY

I was in favour of Bill S. 3084 before the U.S. House of Representatives decided to vote on it... Nevermind. You've probably never heard of it.

Democrat Representative William Lacy Clay propose new legislation H.R.254 in the House

Democrat Representative William Lacy Clay propose new legislation H.R.254 in the House

New bill introduced: To make technical amendments to chapter 3084 of title 54, United States Code, to correct references to the African American Civil Rights Network, and for other purposes.

Democratic Representative William Lacy Clay from the state of MO, without any cosponsors, introduced bill H.R.254 on Jan 04, 2019. There are currently no amendments.

Read this bill online

William Lacy Clay…

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Republicans introduce a 7th anti-furry bill and work to undermine student freedoms on a wider scale

(This blog post was written by Orion Scribner and N. Noel Sol, originally posted on February 18, 2024 to the Otherkin News Dreamwidth, at this link.)

Content warnings: Rated G. An urban legend that describes an unsanitary situation. Sexism against transgender people, including attempts to prevent them from participating in sports and using facilities like everyone else, and attempts to stop them from transitioning.

Summary: In 2023, Republicans began to propose laws (bills) in the US that would be against people who identify as animals. They base these on an urban legend that says schools provide litter boxes for students who identify as animals. Republicans made up that legend in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms (Scribner and Sol, 2024). The newest of these bills is Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678). It’s the third such bill in 2024, bringing the historic total of these bills up to seven. This bill was written as part of a Republican effort to undermine public schools (which can’t ban transgender students from using the right restrooms, and students have First Amendment rights) in favor of religious charter schools (where students aren’t protected in those ways). The following blog post is a seven minute read.

What the Missouri bill says

Missouri House Bill 3678 (MO HB 2678) has the title “Prohibits students from engaging in ‘furry’ behavior while at school.” You can read this bill and see the latest actions on its official site, the Missouri House of Representatives, or on a third-party legislation tracking site, LegiScan. This bill was introduced this week, on February 13th, and read a second time on the 14th. It would add a law into the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo). It would go in the part of the state laws about education, in Chapter 167, titled “Pupils and Special Services.” It would say:

“A student who purports to be an imaginary animal or animal species or who engages in anthropomorphic behavior consistent with the common designation of a ‘furry’ while at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall remove the student from the school for the remainder of the school day.”

The same as the other bills like it, this bill is based on an urban legend, not on anything that was done in real life by students, furries, and/or people who identify as animals (McKinney, 2022a). This bill's wording looks like it was based on a bill from another state, Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084), or its predecessor last year, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943 (OK SB 943). It shares their inaccuracies: though there are real people who identify as animals, surveys show that most furries don’t, and the dictionary definition of the word “anthropomorphic” means resembling a human, not resembling an animal (Scribner and Sol, 2024).

Who wrote the bill, and what is its context with that author’s other motivations?

The Missouri bill’s only sponsor (writer) is Cheri Toalson Reisch (she/her). She is a Missouri Republican who has supported anti-transgender bills in the past. One of those is MO SB 39, which would ban transgender students from participating in their gender’s sports division (both in private and public schools, up to and including in colleges and universities). Another one is MO SB 49. It would bar minors from accessing gender transition related surgeries or medications, removes adult coverage of hormone replacement therapy and any gender-affirming or transitioning surgeries from the Missouri Medicaid program, and denies prisoners and inmates access to any surgeries related to gender transitioning. She described both these bills as a “great move in the right direction,” and has been vocally critical that they were not harsher (Central MO Info, 2023).

Reisch is familiar with the urban legend started by conservatives of students using litter boxes in school bathrooms. She has posted about it on Facebook, telling her constituents that it is actively happening in Missouri and accusing the Columbia school district of taking part in it, stating “This is happening in Columbia Public Schools also. Yes, the janitor has to clean the litter box” (McKinney, 2022a). That's never happened. Schools say they have not been providing litter boxes to students in this way, and even deny that they have had any students identifying or behaving as animals, according to reliable fact checking resources (Reuters, 2022; Palma, Snopes, 2023).

Reisch has a history of being especially critical of the Columbia school district, which is one of the largest and most successful school districts in the state (McKinney, 2022b). She’s used this urban legend to attack the district’s legitimacy. This may be because Reisch prioritizes independently-run charter schools over standard public schools. Earlier this year, she sponsored MO HB 1941, which would allow for charter schools to operate within the Columbia school district without the district’s sponsorship.

Why are Republicans criticizing public schools and favoring charter schools?

In the US, the normal types of schools for children up to about age 18 are called public schools. Families don’t have to pay for their children to attend them. They represent the ideal that everyone growing up in the country should have equal access to school, regardless of income, class, race, religion, or ability. Because public schools are government establishments, the US Constitution protects the students’ rights there. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects the freedom of speech and religion of everyone, and that’s for students in public schools, too. In the landmark 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, students sued because they had gotten suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court decided that it would be as tyrannical to prevent students from expressing political opinions within public schools as it would be in any other government establishments. The Court said students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In 1948, McCollum v. Board of Education had decided that public schools can’t give religious instruction during the school day. In 1962, Engel v. Vitale decided they can’t make students pray (Pew Research Center, 2019). Public school dress codes often aren’t as fair as they should be, but for the most part, their students can wear what they want and what their parents allow.

In contrast, what are known as charter schools in the US are privately owned, so they’re allowed to have requirements or education goals which would be considered a violation of the First Amendment. Some of them have religious affiliations and may be owned or operated by religious organizations. This can affect the way the school is run. For example, Oklahoma charter St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School has planned Catholic religious instruction classes, and the school’s active and intentional participation in what it refers to as “the evangelizing mission of the Church” (Fitzpatrick, 2023). Charter school dress codes can be much more strict. They are often segregated by gender stereotypes, forcing girls to wear skirts and boys trousers, no exceptions. This has been challenged in some places against specific schools, such as in North Carolina earlier this year in a lawsuit against the Charter Day School Inc (Chung, 2023). These challenges are the outlier and not the norm, however; gender-segregated dress codes are still a very common practice for charter schools overall. Charter schools also require applications and choose students based on random lottery systems. However, studies find that charter schools are more likely to ignore parents inquiring about the enrollment process if the student has a disability or other special needs (Darville, 2018). Unlike public schools, they don’t welcome everyone.

The freedom of expression in public schools is important for transgender students. In 2020, the case ​​G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board decided in favor of transgender-friendly restroom policies in high schools. This precedent helps protect transgender students’ rights in public schools, but doesn’t apply to charter schools. During the course of the case, the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund told the Court why to decide against transgender rights. In an effort to invalidate transgender people, the Fund compared transgender people to otherkin. The Fund used the word “otherkin,” and described them at length, mostly accurately but derisively (Brief Amicus Curiae, 2017, G.G. v. Gloucester Cty Sch Bd). This case was part of what inspired the Republicans to later make up the litter box urban legend. We don’t know if that particular brief inspired the legend too.

Republicans may be promoting charter schools because this would give them greater control over impressing their views about gender, religion, and politics on young generations. They may be undermining public schools because the separation of church and state limits their power to do so there. The urban legend and these bills are part of that.

Background about all of the furry bills and the urban legend that inspired them

To learn about this year’s first two anti-furry bills, read our post about them from last week (Scribner and Sol, 2024). That post also summarizes the four anti-furry bills last year, and the litter box urban legend. For further information about those aspects, you can watch our lecture about last year’s bills and what you do about bad bills (Chimeras, Scribner, and Shepard, 2023), and watch Chimeras’s lecture about the litter box urban legend (Chimeras, 2022).

What happens next with Reisch’s anti-furry bill?

The bill is at 25% progression toward becoming a law. The House heard the bill twice, but it hasn’t been voted on. At the time that we write this blog post, they haven’t scheduled the bill’s next hearing.

About the writers of this blog post

We are Orion Scribner (they/them) and N. Noel Sol (she/they), a couple of dragons. We never write articles with the assistance of procedural generation or so-called artificial intelligence (AI), and that type of content isn’t allowed on Otherkin News.

References

“Brief Amicus Curiae of Public Advocate of the United States, U.S. Justice Foundation, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund in Support of Petitioner.” Gloucester County School Bd. v. G. G. ex rel. Grimm, No. 16-273, 2017 WL 192454 (Jan. 10, 2017). http://files.eqcf.org/cases/16-273-amicus-brief-public-advocate-et-al/

Central MO Info (May 19, 2023). “Representative Toalson Reisch Disappointed in Senate’s Version of Trans Bills.” Central MO Info. https://www.centralmoinfo.com/representative-toalson-reisch-disappointed-in-senates-version-of-trans-bills/

Chung, Andrew (June 26, 2024). “US Supreme Court turns away case on charter school's mandatory skirts for girls.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-turns-away-case-charter-schools-mandatory-skirts-girls-2023-06-26

Darville, Sarah (Dec. 21, 2018). “Want a charter school application? If your child has a disability, your questions more likely to be ignored, study finds.” Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/12/21/21106398/want-a-charter-school-application-if-your-child-has-a-disability-your-questions-more-likely-to-be-ig/

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/370/421.html

Fitzpatrick, Cara (Sept. 9, 2023). “The Charter-School Movement’s New Divide.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/charter-schools-religion-public-secular/675293/

G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board. 972 F.3d 586 (4th Cir. 2020). https://casetext.com/case/grimm-v-gloucester-cnty-sch-bd-8

House of Chimeras (Aug. 12, 2022). "Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic." OtherCon. https://youtu.be/WVjXOmN2IlU

House of Chimeras, Orion Scribner, and Page Shepard (2023). “Litter Box Hoax 2: Legislature Boogaloo.” OtherCon 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXy_ctC4Jc&t=1425s

Legiscan. MO HB 2678. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB2678/2024

Legiscan. MO HB 1941. https://legiscan.com/MO/bill/HB1941/2024

Mccollum v. Board Of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/333/203.html

McKinney, Rodger (Aug. 25, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch criticized for 'unwarranted' claim that CPS students use litterboxes.” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/08/25/state-rep-cheri-reisch-criticized-for-unwarranted-claim-that-cps-columbia-students-use-litterboxes/7895082001/

McKinney, Rodger (Feb. 6, 2022). “State Rep. Cheri Reisch states 'Columbia sucks' when referring to public schools in education hearing” Columbia Daily Tribune. https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/education/2022/02/06/cheri-reisch-states-columbia-sucks-when-referring-to-cps-in-education-hearing-mo-leg-basye/6662719001/

Missouri House of Representatives. MO HB 2678. https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB2678&year=2024&code=R

Missouri Senate. MO SB 49. https://www.senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44407

Missouri Senate. MO SB 39. https://senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44496

Palma, Bethania. (January 30, 2023). “How Furries Got Swept Up in Anti-Trans 'Litter Box' Rumors.” Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/ Archived on March 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230330232007/https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/

Pew Research Center (Oct. 3, 2019). “Religion in the Public Schools.” https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/03/religion-in-the-public-schools-2019-update/

Reuters Fact Check (October 18, 2022). “Fact Check-No evidence of schools accommodating ‘furries’ with litter boxes.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT Archived February 13, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230213110524/https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT

Scribner, Orion, and N. Noel Sol (Feb. 9, 2024). “Will Oklahoma Call Animal Control on Students?” Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/92680.html Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). https://openjurist.org/393/us/503

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

On the last day Congress was in session in 2016, Democrats and Republicans agreed on a bill that increased innovation and research for the country.

For me, seeing Congress pass this bill, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, was personally satisfying. It made the program I helped start, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) a permanent part of the nation’s science ecosystem. I-Corps uses Lean Startup methods to teach scientists how to turn their discoveries into entrepreneurial, job-producing businesses.  Over 1,000 teams of our nation’s best scientists have been through the program.

The bill directs the expansion of I-Corps to additional federal agencies and academic institutions, as well as through state and local governments.  The new I-Corps authority also supports prototype or proof-of-concept development activities, which will better enable researchers to commercialize their innovations. The bill also explicitly says that turning federal research into companies is a national goal to promote economic growth and benefit society. For the first time, Congress has recognized the importance of government-funded entrepreneurship and commercialization education, training, and mentoring programs specifically saying that this will improve the nation’s competitiveness. And finally this bill acknowledges that networks of entrepreneurs and mentors are critical in getting technologies translated from the lab to the marketplace.

This bipartisan legislation was crafted by senators Cory Gardner (R–CO) and Gary Peters (D–MI). Senator John Thune (R–SD) chairs the Senate commerce and science committee that crafted S. 3084. After years of contention over reauthorizing the National Science Foundation, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith and Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson worked to negotiate the agreement that enabled both the House and the Senate to pass this bill.

While I was developing the class at Stanford, it was my counterparts at the NSF who had the vision to make the class a national program.  Thanks to Errol Arkilic, Don Mallard, Babu Dasgupta and the instructors at the 53 universities who teach the program across the U.S.

But I haven’t forgotten that before everyone else thought that teaching scientists how to build companies using Lean Methods might be a good for the country, there was one congressman who got it first.  Representative Dan Lipinski (D-Il), co-chair of the House STEM Education Caucus, got on an airplane and flew to Stanford to see the class first-hand.

For the first few years Lipinski was a lonely voice in Congress saying that we’ve found a better way to train our scientists to create companies and jobs.

Congratulations to everyone in making the Innovation Corps a national standard.

      “

  Filed under: Lean LaunchPad, NSF (National Science Foundation), Science and Industrial Policy

Will Oklahoma Call Animal Control on Students?

This article was originally posted to the Otherkin News blog on Dreamwidth.

Content warnings: Rated G. Sexism against transgender people. Adults who cause danger or distress for children by outing them as transgender or showing them animal bloodsports.

Summary: In 2023, Republicans in the US began to propose laws (bills) that would be against furries or people who identify as animals. They continue to do so in 2024. The first two such bills of this year are Oklahoma House Bill 3084 (OK HB 3084) and Mississippi House Bill 176 (MS HB 176). Read on for information about these bills from this and last year, the urban legend that inspired them, what may happen next, and what you can do. This five page article (plus references) is a twelve minute read.

Humphrey’s anti-furry bill in Oklahoma

Republican Representative Justin Humphrey (he/him) specializes in writing bills that are intentionally bizarre so they will attract attention, and then cleaning them up later so that they will pass into law. On December 6, he wrote OK HB 3084, as its only sponsor. He prefiled it on January 17. It was introduced for its first reading on February 5. Here is the bill on Oklahoma’s official site, and on the third-party site Legiscan. It proposes a new law, which would read in full: 

“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. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall pick the student up from the school, or animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student.”

In Humphrey’s interview with Rolling Stone about this, he specifically said that he wrote the furry bill in response to having heard about students using litter boxes in school. The Stone pointed out that that’s an urban legend that never happened at all, but he thinks it’s happened sometimes, if not widespread. He said that “furry” is the common name for a “mental illness” and “sexual habit,” and that there’s an “actual psychological term” for it, which he didn’t say because he found it “very, very difficult to pronounce” (Ehrlich, 2024). 

He probably was referring to “anthropomorphic behavior,” which he wrote in his bill text. That isn’t a psychological term or a mental illness, it’s about cartoon characters. The furry fandom uses “anthropomorphic animals” as a synonym for furries, fictional talking animal characters. “Anthropomorphic” often gets misused to mean “animal-like,” but its literal meaning is “human-like.” Humphrey’s wording would suffice to expel all students from a school: kids who act like animals and kids who act like humans. He likely based his bill on last year’s dead Oklahoma Senate Bill 943, which he didn’t write, but which also used the word.

Humphrey’s bill is the first that says to call animal control on furries. Would they refuse to pick up a student, or could this really cause students to be arrested and detained? Animal control is dictated by the local government (Bradshaw and Vankavage). Sometimes it may be outsourced to contractors who wouldn’t respond to this bizarre request, but in many cases it’s managed by local law enforcement. For example, one Oklahoman city ordinance says that all its animal control officers who are not already part of law enforcement “possess all authority of a police officer of the city for enforcing these animal regulations” (Vinita city code 2005 5-3-19). Humphrey explained that this part is a joke that he doesn’t intend to stick to, though, saying, 

“if you want to treat these people as actual animals, you call animal control. I’ll be happy to rewrite the language [to replace ‘animal control’ with mental health professionals]. But right now, I put that in there to make the point. A sarcastic point” (Erhlich, 2024). 

(Bracketed text in original.) Introducing a bill with an absurd part and then deleting or altering it to let it pass is a tactic that we see in one of last year’s bills, and it’s a favorite tactic of Humphrey’s.

The day after Humphrey filed his furry bill, he called it his “crazy” bill, saying, “I’ve laughed and said, well, we ought to neuter them and vaccinate them and send them to the pound." KOCO News reported, “Humphrey said although it may not become law, he wants to bring attention to what he called a problem” (Jones, 2024). Perhaps, like the urban legend that inspired it, the bill’s purpose is to attract attention by being intentionally absurd. It makes up a guy to get mad at: it describes an invented situation that has never happened, then recommends penalties for that imaginary situation, and those penalties themselves are something that may not be realistically carried out, or which would have absurdly high-stakes consequences. Humphrey’s furry bill doesn’t mention transgender people, but he wrote it in reference to an urban legend that parodies transgender people. Humphrey has also made many public remarks against transgender people, and he has supported anti-transgender bills (Murphy, 2021).

Other Representatives believe he may have intended for the absurdity of his furry bill to distract attention from more serious bills. On the same day that he prefiled this, he also filed a racially discriminatory bill about Oklahomans of Hispanic descent, House Bill 3133 (Jones, 2024).

Part of Humphrey’s amusement here is that he has a beef with animal control. In addition to his hostilities toward LGBTQ people, one of his long-term goals is to reduce the legal penalties for cockfighting from felony to misdemeanor. Throughout the US, this blood sport is illegal, and it is a federal crime to bring a child under age sixteen to any animal fighting events (Humane Society). Humphrey approves of allowing children there, saying, “You’re dang skippy I’ll take my kid to a chicken fighting before I’m gonna take them to see a drag queen” (Leigh, 2023).

This year’s anti-transgender and anti-furry bill in Mississippi

Introduced on January 17, MS HB 176 would require schools to out transgender students to parents, and to allow faculty to not accommodate any student who 

“identif[ies] at school as a gender or pronoun that does not align with the child's sex on their birth certificate, other official records, sex assigned at birth, or identifying as an animal species, extraterrestrial being or inanimate object.” 

As the nonprofit journalism site Mississippi Free Press noted, “There are no known incidents of Mississippi schoolchildren identifying as aliens or inanimate objects, but the idea of children identifying as animals may stem from an unsubstantiated urban myth about litter boxes that spread among Republican officials in recent years” (Harrison, 2024). Here is the bill on Mississippi’s official site, and on the third-party site Legiscan. The bill’s seven authors are all Republican Representatives: Charles “Chuck” Blackwell (main author), William Arnold, Randy Boyd, Larry Byrd, Dan Eubanks, Jimmy Fondren, and Donnie Scoggin. In the same month, Blackwell also sponsored the bill MS HB 303 (about digital currencies) and co-sponsored the bill MS HR 17 (for deporting undocumented immigrants back to Mexico) (TrackBill). 

An overview of last year’s anti-furry bills

Important background for what’s happening is that last year in the US, sexists introduced more than five hundred bills to limit the rights of transgender people (Reed, 2023). Four of those were also against furries or people who identify as animals. They were mainly against the rights of transgender students, and also opposed “a student's perception of being any animal species other than human” (North Dakota House Bill 1522) or “anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries” (Oklahoma Senate Bill 943). 

The text of the third, Indiana Statehouse Bill 380, only talked about dress codes and “disruptive behavior.” Later, this was amended to say “distractive behavior.” However, its writer said that it was to prevent “imitating or were behaving like a furry” (Herron, 2023). The bill’s unspoken real aim was to prevent transgender students from dressing as their gender. 

The fourth was a proposed amendment to Montana Senate Bill 544. It would have changed this internet censorship bill to also censor “acts of transgenderism,” which it defines as “a person being in the mental state of believing the person is transgender or transspecies” (Scribner, Shepard, and Sol, 2023). The word “transgenderism” is a dogwhistle used by people who oppose transgender rights. “Transspecies” is not typically thought of as a subset of it.

By the end of 2023, what came of those four bills? The line about animals was later deleted from the North Dakota bill, though it was still anti-transgender (Scribner, March 14, 2023). It passed on May 18, becoming law that will oppose the rights of transgender students. Last year’s Oklahoma bill died in committee. The Indiana bill passed on May 4, and will prohibit “distractive behavior” in schools. The Montana bill passed on May 19, and it’s still a clumsy plan for internet censorship, but the final text did not use the amendment that talked about transgender or transspecies (Legiscan). So far, no laws have passed with texts that mention anything along the lines of furries or identifying as nonhuman.

What are anti-furry bills really about?

These bills happened because of an urban legend. In parody of transgender students, Republicans made up a story that schools have litter boxes for students who identify as cats. Fact-checking site Snopes has been debunking this legend (Palma), as has Reuters Fact Check. This panel by a historian gives very detailed information about the legend’s development (Chimeras, 2022). Republicans imply through this legend that letting transgender students use the restroom that matches their gender identity would be as ridiculous as giving litter boxes to students who identify as animals.

What are the facts about people who identify as animals, if any exist? Surveys of the furry fandom show that most people who call themselves furries do not identify as animals (Plante et al, 2016, pp. 113-114). However, there are real people who sincerely identify as animals or nonhuman beings. Many call themselves therianthropes or otherkin (Scribner, 2023, “Simple introduction”). Sexists use the word “transspecies” to parody transgender people. However, a few transgender people call a nonhuman aspect of themselves transspecies (Chimeras, 2021). None of them did the things in schools that the urban legend says, so the legend isn’t true, and the legend wasn’t created in response to them. The threatening intent of the legend and bills is toward transgender people, but could cause trouble for furries and people who identify as animals.

Are there people who think of their gender identity as something nonhuman, and is that based on or part of the concept of being transgender? Transgender people who don’t feel they are a woman or man only or all the time have a nonbinary gender. Some people feel so different from a woman or man that they say their gender is something other than human. Since 2014, some call themselves xenogender, meaning “alien gender.” This can be a metaphor for something difficult to put into words, and they do not necessarily think of themselves as literally nonhuman, though some do. Surveys show that most nonbinary people define their gender in relation to being a woman or man; only 1.7% of nonbinary people call themselves xenogender or a variation on that word, and no other xenogender identity comes close to common (Gender Census, 2023). However, identifying as nonhuman is not inherently a form of being transgender, and was not developed based on the concept of being transgender.

What happens next for Humphrey’s anti-furry bill?

On February 5 and 6, it had its first and second readings, and it was referred to the House Rules Committee to read it next. That Committee has seven Republicans and two Democrats (State of Oklahoma). We’ll see if they let it die the same as last year’s Oklahoma bill, or if they vote for it to progress toward passing in some form. Remember the aforementioned interview where Humphrey said he doesn’t expect it to pass. Its purpose is to make “a sarcastic point” and attract attention away from other bills.

What happens next for the Mississippi bill? 

The day it was introduced, MS HB 176 was referred to the Mississippi House Education Committee and still waits for them to vote on it. Given that the Committee has a majority of Republicans (according to its government site and legislation tracking site, BillTracker.com), and the bill’s similarity to the North Dakota bill that passed last year with the portion about non-humans deleted, they’re likely to pass this bill in some form. The director of the Mississippi branch of the Human Rights Campaign, Rob Hill (he/him), said, 

“We’ve not seen this kind of bill in Mississippi before, and we hope that our leaders will resist another effort to stigmatize and isolate transgender and nonbinary youth and their peers [...] This is a very dangerous bill. It’s dangerous for the lives of youth … and it further perpetuates Mississippi’s image of being a place of discrimination” (Harrison, 2024).

What can you do?

Page Shepard (they/he), House of Chimeras (they/them), and I presented a panel about the bills last August. In the recording of our panel, skip to the timestamp 23:44 to hear what ordinary people can do about bad bills. In the written script of our lecture, see Slides 21 through 25.

About the author of this article

I’m Orion Scribner (they/them), and I’ve been writing and researching as an alterhuman community historian for more than ten years. I’m a moderator on Otherkin News, a volunteer-run blog about current events relevant to the alterhuman communities. My partner N. Noel Sol (she/her) did some editing in this document, especially in regard to animal control. Thanks for proofreading by my partner system the House of Chimeras (they/them), and my colleague Xylanth (it/its). I never write articles with the assistance of procedural generation or so-called artificial intelligence (AI), and that type of content isn’t allowed on Otherkin News.

References

BillTrack50. "Mississippi House Education Committee." https://www.billtrack50.com/committee/4245#billReferral 

Bradshaw, A. and L. Vankavage. “The Role of Local Government in Animal Control.” Humane Animal Control.  https://resources.bestfriends.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Chapter%202_Role%20of%20Local%20Government%20in%20Animal%20Control.pdf?bG9ehcLSrIR08a1N_X1wbpYDzgy8_orb 

Vinita city code 2005 5-3-19: ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER; IMPOUNDMENT OF ANIMALS; REDEMPTION; SALE; EUTHANASIA. American Legal Publishing. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/vinitaok/latest/vinita_ok/0-0-0-2467

Ehrlich, Brenna (January 17, 2024). “Students Dressed as Furries Could be Collected by Animal Control if New Oklahoma Bill Passes.” Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/furries-school-bill-animal-control-1234948434/ 

Jones, Alyse (January 18, 2024). "How many newly filed bills will become law in Oklahoma?". KOCO-TV. https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-new-filed-bills/46431213 

House of Chimeras (Aug. 12, 2022). "Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic." https://houseofchimeras.neocities.org/Lectures

House of Chimeras (Aug. 14, 2021). "The Use and Misuse of The Term Transspecies." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miSyXSesyzw 

House of Chimeras, O. Scribner, and P. Shepard (2023). “Litter Box Hoax 2: Legislature Boogaloo.” OtherCon 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXy_ctC4Jc&t=1425s 

Harrison, Heather (January 19, 2024). “Teachers Required to Out Trans Students to Families Under Proposed Mississippi Bill.” Mississippi Free Press. https://www.mississippifreepress.org/39193/teachers-required-to-out-trans-students-to-families-under-proposed-mississippi-bill 

Herron, Arika (Jan. 26, 2023). "Indiana lawmaker targets furries in schools. Schools say there's no problem." IndyStar. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/26/indiana-statehouse-bill-targets-furries-schools-say-no-problem/69840839007/ Archived Jan. 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230126101035/https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/26/indiana-statehouse-bill-targets-furries-schools-say-no-problem/69840839007/

Humane Society Legislative Fund (February 4, 2014). “Farm Bill Strengthens Animal Fighting Law, Maintains State Farm Animal Protection Laws.” The Humane Society of the United States. https://web.archive.org/web/20141025151239/http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news_briefs/2014/02/farm_bill_passed_020414.html 

Legiscan, IN SB 380. https://legiscan.com/IN/bill/SB0380/2023 

Legiscan, MT SB 544. https://legiscan.com/MT/bill/SB544/2023

Legiscan, MS HB 176. https://legiscan.com/MS/bill/HB176/2024 

Legiscan, ND HB 1522. https://legiscan.com/ND/bill/HB1522/2023 

Legiscan, OK HB 3084. https://legiscan.com/OK/bill/HB3084/2024 

Legiscan, OK SB 943. https://legiscan.com/OK/bill/SB943/2023

Leigh, Sunny (April 15, 2023). "Bill to reduce penalties for animal fighting shut down in Oklahoma Senate". KTUL. https://ktul.com/news/local/bill-to-reduce-penalties-for-animal-fighting-shut-down-in-oklahoma-senate-cockfighting-chicken-fighting-dogfighting-humphrey-kunzweiler-humane-society-animal-wellness-gamefowl-lawmakers Content warning for animal cruelty. This article goes into some detail about the more criminal and violent extremes of animal fighting.

Mississippi Legislation. House of Representatives Committee Listing. https://www.legislature.ms.gov/committees/house-committees/ 

Murphy, Sean (15 April 2021). "GOP Oklahoma lawmaker criticized for transgender comments". AP. https://apnews.com/article/legislature-oklahoma-bills-oklahoma-city-5db54da2949c3398d3fc7c53714bdc36 

Palma, Bethania. (January 30, 2023). “How Furries Got Swept Up in Anti-Trans 'Litter Box' Rumors.” Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/ Archived on March 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230330232007/https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/30/how-furries-got-swept-up-in-anti-trans-litter-box-rumors/

Plante, C., S. Reysen, S. Roberts, and K. Gerbasi (2016). FurScience! A summary of five years of research from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project. FurScience: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. ISBN: 978-0-9976288-0-7. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304540208_FurScience_A_summary_of_five_years_of_research_from_the_International_Anthropomorphic_Research_Project The relevant section of the book is also on the project’s official web page here: https://furscience.com/research-findings/therians/7-2-animal-identification/ 

Reed, Erin (December 30, 2023). “Erin's 2024 Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map.” Erin in the Morning. https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/erins-2024-anti-trans-legislative

Reuters Fact Check (October 18, 2022). “Fact Check-No evidence of schools accommodating ‘furries’ with litter boxes.” https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT Archived February 13, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230213110524/https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-rogan-litterbox-idUSL1N31J1KT

Scribner, O. (March 14, 2023). “A formerly anti-alterhuman but still anti-transgender bill will be heard Wednesday.” https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/88744.html 

Scribner, O. (April 13, 2023). “A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes: Version 2.4.7.” The Works of Orion Scribner. https://web.archive.org/web/20230603220035/http://frameacloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/simpleintro.pdf 

Scribner, O. (February 22, 2023). “In US, three anti-transgender bills also oppose alterhumans; similar recent Supreme Court cases.” Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/86709.html 

Scribner, O., P. Shepard, and N. N. Sol (April 24, 2023). “Proposed amendment to Montana net censorship bill would ban transgender and transspecies people.” Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/89561.html 

State of Oklahoma House of Representatives. Oklahoma House Rules Committee. https://www.okhouse.gov/committees/house/rules 

TrackBill. “Mississippi Rep. Charles Blackwell (R).” https://trackbill.com/legislator/mississippi-representative-charles-blackwell/981-27365/ 

One of the anti-furry bills might become about religion in schools instead

(Orion Scribner originally posted the following article to the Otherkin News blog on Dreamwidth on February 25, 2024.)

Content warnings: Rated G. Mentions of abortion and transphobia.

Summary: Checking for updates on this year's three anti-furry bills in the US. None of them have progressed. The bill for calling animal control on furry students has a new sponsor. He wants to rewrite it. It would instead become a duplicate of his bill that says classrooms must display the Ten Commandments. The bill hasn't changed yet, so it's still an anti-furry bill.

I just checked for updates about the current status of all of the proposed laws (bills) in the US that are about furries or people who identify as animals. Anti-furry bills aren't based on anything that anyone in real life is doing: not participants of the furry fandom, not children pretending to be animals in the playground, and not people who really do identify as animals. Republicans say they wrote these bills because of an urban legend that schools provide litter boxes for students who identify as animals. According to fact-checkers Reuters and Snopes, no schools have ever done that. Republicans made up the urban legend and bills in parody of transgender students asking to use school restrooms. On the Otherkin News blog, we have previously written about all three of the anti-furry bills that are active, which you can read here and here. I searched on LegiScan to see if Republicans have introduced more anti-furry bills since then, but I didn’t find any new ones.

Two of the bills haven’t had any action since we posted about them before. Those are Mississippi HB 176 and Missouri HB 2678. They’re both still at 25% progression toward becoming laws. Their state government sites don’t say that hearings have been scheduled for them.

Oklahoma HB 3084 is also still at 25% progression, but some things have been happening with it. This is the bill where Republican Representative Justin Humphrey (he/him) proposed that students who are furries should be taken away from school by animal control. As of the 15th, the bill added a second sponsor, Republican Representative Jim Olsen (he/him). Olsen took Humphrey's place as the principal sponsor. Some other bills that Olsen sponsors are against abortion (OK HB 1537, HB 3013, and HJR 1046), and to allow children to not get vaccines (HB 2963 and HB 3249). Last year, Olsen sponsored some anti-transgender bills (HB 1011, HB 2177, and HB 2186).

On the 19th, Olsen proposed an amendment to HB 3084, the anti-furry bill. You can read his proposed amendment on Oklahoma’s site, or read it on a third-party site, LegiScan. This amendment would delete the entire text of the bill and replace it with an unrelated text. The text of this amendment is the same as another bill Olsen sponsored this month, HB 2962. It would no longer be about furry students at all. Instead, it would propose a law requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. That would be unlikely to pass. In the US, public schools are government establishments, which prohibits them from displaying religious materials like that. I don't know what the advantage would be of duplicating the same text in two bills, or changing the topic of a bill so much. At this time, Olsen’s proposed amendment hasn’t been accepted. The bill’s current text is still what Humphrey originally wrote about furries.

On the 21st, the bill was withdrawn from the Rules committee. Then it was referred to the House Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee Committee. They haven't voted on it. I don’t see that they have scheduled a hearing for it. I'll keep watching for whatever happens next.

About the writer of this blog post: Orion Scribner (they/them) is a moderator on the Otherkin News blog.