The FURRIES Act would ban Texas students from using litter boxes in school. Critics say it targets a problem that doesn't exist.

Yahoo

01-05-2025

A new Texas bill is gaining attention for seeking to ban 'animal behavior' in public schools. It's called the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act, aka the FURRIES Act — and it seeks to stop students from 'using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine, or other human byproducts.'
The bill, named after the 'furry' subculture, which broadly refers to people with a particular interest in animal characters with humanlike qualities, bans dressing up like an animal (such as by wearing tails, collars, ears or leashes) in schools, and bars hissing, meowing and other animallike tendencies. It also prohibits 'surgical' interventions that would make a student appear more animallike.
But according to some lawmakers, educators and members of the public, the act is seeking to solve problems that don't actually exist — particularly when it comes to where students are, or are not, using the bathroom. Here's what to know.
The FURRIES Act was first introduced on March 13 by Stan Gerdes, a Republican Texas state representative. He claimed that an unspecified 'furry-related incident' happened in the Smithville Independent School District outside of Austin, prompting him to file a formal piece of legislation.
That same day, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referenced the act at the 2025 Texas Pastors Policy Conference in Austin in a speech promoting school choice, where he stated that some students were using litter boxes at school.
In a Tuesday hearing about the bill, Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat, pushed back and asked Gerdes to confirm the claims that inspired the FURRIES Act. Gerdes was unable to provide specifics.
'This is all part of Abbott's smear campaign against our public schools,' Talarico wrote in a post on X.
In fact, none of the claims about litter box usage in schools have ever been verified — and the idea that students are forgoing toilets in favor of cat litter boxes has been debunked time and time again.
Rumors about kids using litter boxes in schools have circulated since at least January 2022, per a New York Times article that explained how a Midland County, Mich., school district was accused of supplying feline-friendly accommodations for students before it denied having litter boxes.
Meanwhile, in March 2022, Republican Nebraska state Sen. Bruce Bostelman apologized after repeating the debunked rumor — which was circulating in Facebook groups for parents in both Nebraska and Iowa — during a televised debate.
But by the fall of 2022, at least 20 conservative candidates and elected officials falsely claimed that year that schools were accommodating students who identified as cats, according to a review by NBC News.
That includes New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc, who claimed at a campaign event that students were using litter boxes, as well as exhibiting other animal behaviors like licking one another, at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H. A spokesperson for the school denied this, stating the boxes were used for their pre-veterinary and animal management classes.
In October 2022, podcaster Joe Rogan told guest Tulsi Gabbard that his friend's wife 'works at a school that had to install a litter box in the girls' room because there is a girl who was a furry, who identifies as an animal' — further giving fuel to the rumors. But weeks later, Rogan walked back the comments, admitting on his podcast that there 'doesn't seem that there's any proof that they put a litter box in there.' Reuters Fact Check also separately confirmed in October 2022 that there are no schools providing litter boxes for students.
And it's not just (not) happening in America, either: In May 2023, CBC reported that a school in Quebec, Canada, also had to debunk its own kitty litter rumor.
So far, there is only one piece of evidence that says some schools are supplying kitty litter for student use: Colorado's Jefferson County school district, which includes Columbine High School, previously stated that it keeps litter in classrooms in case students need to relieve themselves during an emergency lockdown.
Some people, such as Talarico, a vocal school voucher critic, see the litter box rumors as a way to incite a moral panic where none exists to stoke distrust in public education.
Grand Forks, N.D., Superintendent Terry Brenner told Education Week in November 2022 that the kitty litter hoax is part of an agenda 'started by a small minority group and a political wing' who are 'trying to dismantle public education as we know it.'
'By starting all of this disinformation, they can say, 'public schools aren't the answer,'' he explained. ''Students aren't achieving academically, socially, behaviorally, or emotionally. So, let's get the voucher system going.''
President Trump has made it a mission to radically change education in the United States, indicating his intent to dismantle the Department of Education earlier this year. Some critics of that plan say that doing so will give more power to private and religious institutions, furthering the class and education divide.
The litter box rumors also come amid another ongoing bathroom battle in public schools over the rights of trans students to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity.
Scott Ellis, executive director of Great Lakes Bay Pride, which services the Midland LGBTQ community in Michigan, spoke to Michigan Advance in February 2022 about the ways in which the litter box panic harms children.
'We've gotten to a place where in order to put down those who are either exploring their gender identity or identify maybe differently than their sex assigned at birth, we start equating these things — like in this particular case, 'furries' being a role-play versus somebody's identity,' he said. 'Those are not the same thing.'
While furries are not inherently a part of the LGBTQ community, despite common misconception, self-described 'gay furries' did take credit for hacking into anti-trans government websites in 2023.