#anti furry bill

[being-a-human-isnt-very-fun]

About recent Oklahoma legislation

Since everyone's talking about the anti-furry/therian/otherkin bill, I wanna say that it hasn't been passed and was just proposed by some quack that happens to be a politician. It's getting a lot of press because it's ridiculous, not because it is going to be passed.

So far the only action the bill has gone through is being made and introduced to the House. No votes and no other official actions. It hasn't been introduced to the Oklahoma Senate, there are no actuarial statements, no fiscal statements (though I can't imagine this would cost anything).

And in case you are doubting what an actual whack job this guy is, let me tell you some information about Rep. Justin Humphrey. First I just wanted to point out that he took his photo for the Oklahoma House of Representatives in a cowboy hat. Not that that really matters but it gives you a sense of his overall personality. He's a representative of Oklahoma district 19, and allegedly has pre-filed one other anti-lgbtq bill that I couldn't actually find in his history but another article I read said he did so...just decide the validity of that on your own I guess. I linked some of his other questionable bill ideas down below:

ok so this one is about the Tucker Carlson and Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit. Basically what happened is Tucker (who has a talk show on Fox News btw) said that DVS rigged the election against Trump, and DVS sued him, because that isn't true. And our homie Justin Humphrey wrote a bill that...continued to not use Dominion Voting systems? Idk this guy is kind of a nut job and this bill literally reads like a fancier version of a twitter post.

Ok so I'm sure I'm boring you at this point but this whole guy's Oklahoma Senate position is just pushing a bunch of really odd bills that are either dead or stuck in committee.

My point is, please don't spread misinformation about this. It isn't a big deal. All my Oklahoma peeps out there don't need to be worried.

Here are my sources and some extra reading:

[its-kayyyy]

new to the internet or confused on new terms? here!

[hidden-among-stars]

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.)

[bridenore]

Author rec : wolfpants

Wolfpants is one of my favorite authors. Here are a few recs, listed in alphabetical order.

August by @wolfpants [3k]

Summer, 1998. Harry Potter arrives at the Manor to return Draco's wand. The problem is, he keeps coming back.

Aurora by @wolfpants [5k]

Eighth Year at a half-built Hogwarts, and Harry is not following Draco Malfoy anymore. At least, that's what he's telling himself.

Everybody Hates a Tourist by @wolfpants [51k]

On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy. After a glimpse of Malfoy’s Muggle life in Britain’s gay capital, Harry’s curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself returning to the seaside again and again, drawn to the city, drawn to this new version of Malfoy that Harry barely recognises from school. Meanwhile, Draco’s just trying to live his big and best queer life: working for the weekend, chasing hot men, getting lost in Brighton’s nightlife, and making friends with the neighbourhood cats. Why does his former school rival and crush have to show up and spoil everything?

Look For Me In The Sun by @wolfpants [8k]

Harry and Draco are on the run in America after a mysterious string of werewolf-like attacks in the Muggle community causes the Ministry to  impose new and harsh anti-werewolf legislation. Giant trees, crashing waves, seedy motel rooms, and the long and winding coastal road awaits them, but will they ever be able to go back home?

Summer Place by @wolfpants [14k]

Draco has the perfect life: a perfect house on a perfect street with his perfect husband. It’s all he’s ever wanted. So why does something still feel wrong? 

Thickets by @wolfpants [17k]

When Draco returns to the UK after two decades of building his career as an internationally-renowned artist to look after his ailing, estranged father, he crosses paths with his former flame, Harry Potter, in the most unexpected way.

Under Giant Mountains by @wolfpants [33k]

Harry doesn’t know where he’s going. Everyone else has  their life paths figured out; he doesn’t even know where his map is.  Who’d have thought Draco Malfoy bathing in a Norwegian forest would be  the guidepost Harry needed? In which Harry’s trip to Norway to  visit dragon-wrangler Ron introduces him to hikes from hell, mysterious   natural magic, foraging, magical bathing, a new and bizarre friendship, and the frustrating, heady allure of his former nemesis turned sexy   globetrotting field researcher.

Waiting for the Moon to Rise by @wolfpants [8k]

When Harry and Draco move into Grimmauld Place straight out of Hogwarts, the last person they expect to find taking up residence is Bill ‘divorced, dishevelled, and dangerous’ Weasley. But what if their new, furry little problem is the help they need to finally bring them closer? Stranger things have happened, Draco supposes.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did!

[otherkinnews]

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.

[argumate]

This is not a joke, it’s a genuine trend, as ballooning attendances at Australia’s national convention attests. Fewer than two dozen furries attended in 2010, whereas this year’s event attracted close to 1000. Before last year, I’d never advised on these issues, but the questions are now pouring in from puzzled employers and educators: Should we let a student eat lunch out of a dog bowl? Can they wear a tail if it’s concealed under their uniform? Will we breach our duty of care if we prohibit the wearing of cat ears and they develop anxiety?

Has the world gone barking mad or is this just a sign of modern individualism?

Furscience suggests more than 75 per cent of furries are under the age of 25. It is therefore not surprising that a key place of tension with the phenomenon is in schools. At one Victorian school that I’ve had dealings with, a student wished to wear a tail under her uniform. Under threat of a discrimination claim, the school agreed to the demands of the child’s parents.

Being a furry is, of course, not a crime. Furries are a fandom, similar to Trekkies or Swifties; they are not a demographic group like members of the LGBTQ+ community. Nor is anthropomorphism a protected attribute under Australian anti-discrimination legislation.

Christians and Muslims are also a fandom, of course!

Two American states, Oklahoma and North Dakota, are considering legislation aimed at prohibiting schools from catering to a student’s identification as an animal. The draft Oklahoma House Bill 3084, introduced in January, would ban “students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animal species” and require parents to collect students behaving like furries. If the parents don’t, the bill says, “animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student”.

okay that's hilarious though, talk about respecting the identity

[cordycepsfem]

Let’s read the news today…

Oh no, this sounds terrible! What are these bills about that could cause so much harm to the LGBTQ+ community?

Oh! I see. They’re bills promoting keeping sports sex-segregated (good), promoting bathrooms that are sex-segregated (good), and bills against children, mostly future homosexuals who will grow out of actual gender dysphoria, and many of whom are autistic, being put on harmful drugs that will affect their bone growth, emotional health, intelligence, and genital and sexual maturation, among other things (sounds good to me!).

But wait… what does this have to do with gays or lesbians or bisexual people? Maybe some other bills will clue me in.

I’m sorry, an “anti-furry bill” is “anti-trans”? So now being trans is to be equated with having paraphilias and/or fetishes? Why don’t you just say it out loud here, guys. I’m sure all of the trans people trying to live their lives really appreciate being lumped in with furries. A+ work.

Ah, there it is. This has fuck all to do with the LGB community and everything to do with the privileges the TQ+ demand. Not sure why they didn’t just say “trans bills” in the article title - it would have gotten just as many reads and probably a bunch of money thrown at it.

Also, extra points for mentioning “Harvard Law instructor” (not his actual job, it’s much less prestigious than that) Alejandra Caraballo in this article. You can find out all kinds of exciting things about him on KF, including how he had to testify in front of Congress about threats he made towards the Supreme Court on Twitter. Brilliant brilliant lawyer. 🙄

Thanks for recommending this article, Elliot Page!

[roller6262]

Hey! Skinny white guy here wishing I was something more exciting!

I can sense you've been touched by the power of many transformations before, perhaps you are a master of transformation as well? Usually I'd be wary of using my power on those like you, in case it rebounded on me, but this request is too tempting to pass. Fine, I'll make you more interesting. You're sitting at home when to hear loud rock coming from outside. You open your front door to find yourself in a suburban neighborhood with a young South Asian man sitting on your doorstep with a speaker.

You want to ask him what he's doing here, but after noticing some angry glares from your neighbors, you think it's best to tell him to turn the music down first. "Turn it down?" He scoffs, "Man, you're the one always saying to turn it up. Listen to this!" He grabs you by the ear and pulls you closer to the speaker, as if standing across the street wouldn't still be a fine distance to hear the track. You curse when you feel a sharp pain where he grabbed your earlobe, but as the sound reverberates through your skull you find that pain turning to pleasure.

You nod your head to the booming drums as your ear lobes grow, craving more of that sound, then filling with large gauges. You tell him he's right, shit this good deserves to be played at max volume. "Hell yeah, especially when it speaks to taking down a broken system. That's what it's like for brown men in a white man's world." You're confused, is brown men referring to you too? You feel your body electrified like a guitar, your body warming up and your skin darkening in turn. Your hair stands on end until the blackened strands curl into a mess much like the man's, though you like your streaked red and sides shaved. You grin, looking at your fellow south asian with your deep brown eyes in newfound familiarity. You can't help but agree that there's nothing more punk than an immigrant.

After a few minutes of listening, your neighbor's annoyed stares become more obvious to both of you. "Man let's ditch these posers. Is it cool if I take this to Zayne's house?" You get excited, recognizing the name of another punk who lives a few blocks down. You agree, noting you're excited to listen there too. "What?" he chuckles, "no offense Man, but I don't think Zayne invites anyone your age to rock out." You wonder what he means by age before looking down at your arms, ever hairier than before. You think you're seeing things, adjusting your glasses out of habit without realizing you weren't wearing any before. Your facial scruff becoming a thick beard. Your clothes turning into a brown polo tucked into white khakis, baggy at first but stretched tighter as your time as a slim youth grows distant from years in a sedentary desk job. Your adjust your polo, trying to give your moobs more room while they jiggle along with your gut to the speaker. Despite your new clothes, you're still a punk in spirit, but a man needs to dress a certain way to work when he's got bills to pay.

you look at the man, now recognizing him as your son. You're a bit sad he keeps calling you "Man" instead of Dad, but a part of you swells with pride as a sign he's inherited some of the anti-authority spirit you grew up with. You sigh, allowing him to go rock out with his friend, but reminding him to come home before dinner and hoping you can jam with him after too.

"Ah kids" I say, stepping out of the house next to yours, looking like a typical suburban man "no matter how cool you are, they always choose their friends." You laugh deeply, clutching on to the bouncing polo that threatens to untuck from your khakis and reveal the furry carpet below. You say your son is probably just going through a rebellious phase. I laugh in kind, "With a rebel dad like you, I'm sure 'rebellious phase' is an understatement!" I'm unsure if you recognize me, or the request you made to me, but I am sure that this life is at the very least more exciting!

[frameacloud]

September 2024

[Originally posted to Orion Scribner's Patreon blog on September 16, 2024.]

I've been thinking for a long time that I need to get back into posting regular updates to my Patreon about what I'm doing instead of assuming you all are following me on other sites where those things are happening. Here are some of those things, which are mostly writings from my original research about otherkin, therianthropes, and other alterhumans.

I have a store on itch.io now! My creations that I've put on it, available to read for free:

A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes, version 2.4.8. My two page long essay explains what we are, in a way that the average person can understand. Written in the limited vocabulary of Simple English, it doesn't use any special words. If you read this essay many years ago and found it sounded rather stilted, don't worry, I completely rewrote this version! It also cites primary sources for each idea. I'm working with volunteers to translate it into many languages. Thanks to them, it's in German, Dutch, Estonian, and Polish. Chinese, Croatian, and Spanish are in progress. On the page, I give links to the ko-fi accounts of the translators so you can tip them, if they chose to allow that.

The Otherkin Timeline. This is my community history book that helped make it possible for other researchers to write about us, so most academic papers on otherkin cite it. Version 2.1 is mostly the version that has been in circulation for more than a decade, plus a few small additions and corrections. The next update of the book will change and expand it considerably, because it will be a collaboration between my fellow community historian and partner system, the House of Chimeras.

I also curated and reviewed collections of other people's creations about alterhumans. Find out where you can play tabletop role-playing games where each of you are members of a plural system on a magical adventure; read 1990s-style punk zines about therianthropy; take your time with literature anthologies of otherkin; or play video games with animal protagonists.

Presentations that I've given in this past year:

While I was staff at this summer's OtherCon 2024, I presented the panel Phantom Limbs and Phantom Sensations, Human and Otherwise. (To watch the video, you need to be signed into Youtube so that you can say you're at least 18. It's an 18+ topic because of some health issues it talks about.) The first half of this is a review of the medical literature on phantom limb phenomena, plus some etiquette tips about how to be respectful of people who have limb differences. The second half summarizes my original research project, the results of my survey, with tons of help from my partner and statistical expert, Page Shepard. This inquired about people who feel sensations of nonhuman body parts, for example, of wings or tails. It was open to people whether or not they call themselves otherkin, therians, or some other sort of alterhuman. It received more than a thousand usable responses, making it the largest recorded survey focused on otherkin or therians. My presentation ended up being overambitious for the time slot, so sometime I want to re-record it with better pacing.

In March, I was staff at the first Centaurus Festival. Together with my partner systems Chimeras and Page, we did a presentation there: How to Run Surveys of the Alterhuman Communities.

Articles I've written for the Otherkin News blog:

I've been covering "anti-furry" bills in the US. These are laws that Republicans have been proposing against students who behave or identify as non-humans. The bills aren't based on based on anything that students are doing in real life. They're based on an urban legend that Republicans made up to satirize transgender students asking for gender-appropriate restrooms by claiming that children who identify as cats ask for litter boxes in classrooms.

Meanwhile, children in real life have been getting into a fad popularized on TikTok in which they exercise on all fours (quadrobics) and craft animal masks. Some of these self-described therians are familiar with therianthropy as a serious integral part of one's identity, whereas others of them only know it as a hobby. I collected a bunch of recent news articles about that from Finland: Therian quadrobics popular for children in Finland; two schools ban animal masks.

[tangerinedre3mer]

🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱

Our intro cuz why not🙃✨

✰Our names - Charlie, Bee, and if you were so inclined you can call us bill cipher (I am bill so yk)

✰Our pronouns - We are genderfluid so they change but here is the link to our pronoun list(basically pick a prn(s) from the list and use them for us✨✨✨)

✰Age - we are a MINOR, SFW interactions ONLY. However our “soul” has been around for countless years

✰Types - therian: death head moth, lynx, snow leopard | otherkin: sharkpup, demonkin, cryptidkin | otherhearted: hammerhead shark, whale shark, bumble bee | other/copinglink: mouse (wip), Labrador (wip) | fictionkin: bill cipher from gravity falls (idk which timeline we just know we’re a chaotic interdimensional space demon)

✰Gender - Trigender: cassflux, libradyad, genderfluid (we use the term genderfluid but gendetfaunet x linumgender describes us better)

✰sexuality: pan🩷💛💙, aroaceflux, and polyamorous

✰agere/dre - lil age: 3-6 | names - cleo/charlie | likes: coloring, drawing, snuggling stuffies, playing video games, being outside, watching shows |

🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱

This is our main blog and is probably gonna be about random crap :]]

Dni: nsfw blog, excesive gore (it makes us uncomfortable), vents without trigger warnings, if you fat/skinny-shame, anti-furry, anti-therian/otherkin/otherlink/physical therian/otherpaw/otherhearted/nonhuman (we support and love all alterhumans on this blog😤❤️), anti-agere/dre, anti-petre, anti-lgbtqia, if your an asshole just in general, if your someone/thing that acts on the urges of/won’t seek help for the big 3 paras (or any harmful ones), sexist, racist, ableist, etc.

Also please put trigger warnings if you are gonna vent to us or are going to be talking to us about losing weight, 3ds and similar things (it is VERY triggering for us)

if your blog makes us uncomfortable we’ll block you /srs

🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈 Likes: ✰Furry fandom/athropromorfic animals (we have 3 sonas)

✰writing

✰sharks and moths

✰eevees (our faves are sylveon and vapeoreon)

✰hazbin/helluva (not appropriate for kids/preteens, and some teens depending on maturity level)

✰tea

✰the dragon prince (show)

✰Stardew Valley

✰Bill Cipher (were the best)

🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱🌈🌱

May update later idk🫠, comment if theres more we should add✨❤️

alrighty, buh-bye my fellow beings🐾✨🌈

[hidden-among-stars]

I do think it’s important to clarify in your OP about the house bill that this is anti-trans legislation first and foremost. while it’s of concern for alterhumans, it is very deliberately being proposed as a way to frame trans people as animals & target trans kids—the author of the bill doesn’t actually care (and probably doesn’t know) about alterhumanity.

This bill will be used to prop up transphobic laws, and probably isn’t intended to be passed at all. I don’t think removing or ignoring that context is appropriate.

- a trans therian

I was going to make a reblog about this exact thing, but I'll say what I was going to say there here instead because I think it's important to make sure everyone gets the chance to see this. This is going to be long because I tend to ramble. TL;DR: Conservatives are not framing transgender people themselves as animals, but their arguments about/beliefs regarding people who identify as animals are absolutely deeply rooted in transphobia, which itself is deeply rooted in a fear/hatred of any "divergent identity." These two concerns are very closely entwined and are part of the same fight (the fight of "just let people be whoever they are"), but are not in and of themselves the same in the sense that this lawmaker is trying to target transgender folks with this specific bill. What makes this bill particularly concerning is the fact that it treats nonhuman-identities as their own separate issue, along with the media coverage it has been getting, which could easily spark other more "viable" anti-"furry" bills to be written and potentially passed in more conservative states across the country. However, this is not a time to panic, but rather a time to be vigilant and start thinking about how we need to prepare to defend one another against whatever comes next.

The fight for trans rights certainly still needs to be at the forefront of our minds, and we also need to be watchful for this threat that is creeping out from the cesspool that is the conservative need for any kind of new "monster" to blame society's problems on.

-Sincerely, another trans therian.

The whole "litterboxes in schools/students identifying as cats/animals" thing started with conservatives who said "if we let people identify as another gender its only a matter of time before people start identifying as animals." These people are well aware that transgender does not mean somebody who identifies as a different species - their concept of nonhuman identifying folks absolutely is rooted in transphobia, but is not in and of itself necessarily about transgender folks.

Reality is, anti-trans legislation and anti-"furry" (read: therian, otherkin, transspecies, etc. - though furries who aren't part of these labels would ultimately be affected as well) legislation are two sides of the same coin - but they are still two distinct sides. That coin is the "divergent identities" coin (and really has many facets, not just two... so... perhaps more of a "divergent identities" cube?), as I'll call it. Anything that isn't cis, het, christian, human-identifying, etc. would be considered a "divergent" identity - a disorder, an illness, something to be cured, something to be eliminated.

Yes, anti-"furry" clauses have up until now been wrapped up with anti-transgender bills. That's conservatives trying to, pardon the horrible cliche, kill two birds with one stone - but one bird they are assuming exists/believe exists because of a sensationalist story, not because they necessarily know it actually exists. Make absolutely no mistake though, now that even the slight possibility of nonhuman identifying folks is on their radar, they are going to work to - in their mind - prevent it, and "cure" (read: eliminate by whatever means they feel necessary) it for whoever already fits that description.

Up until now, it's been a side issue. Something to just tack onto anti-trans bills. The fact that some jerk of a lawmaker decided that it was a strong enough issue on its own to create its own bill is concerning because this marks the first time that it is being treated less like a hypothetical or a side problem, and more like it's own separate issue worth addressing.

However, these two are part of the exact same fight, and cannot/should not be considered entirely separate. The fight is not just about "let trans people be trans," the fight is about "let people be whoever they are." That includes being any sexuality other than allo-het, that includes any religion other than christian (not necessarily an "identity", but still), that includes being anything other than cisgender, and yes, it includes identifying as any species other than human. The focus has recently been particularly targeted at trans folks, but remember that before it was trans folks, it was anyone who wasn't straight.

Conservatives always need a "monster" to defeat. They rely on the outrage of the ignorant and the bigoted in order to get what they want. Its why so many of their talking points aren't really about the economy or infrastructure but instead are about things like abortion, "illegal immigrants," non-Western nations in general, religions that are seen as "foreign" or "satanic," and any identity that isn't considered "normal." The reality is, issues like poverty, poor infrastructure, and prevalent violence are issues that can't just be solved in a day - but humans like quick fixes, so some folks (especially conservatives, though they're certainly not the only ones) think if they can blame all of these issues on anyone who is considered an "other," then many people will be quick to follow them in trying to eliminate the "other" and just push aside all of the real problems that continue to, in someway or another, benefit the people in power.

It only takes one conservative with even half a braincell to decide to google "people who identify as animals" after seeing that a bill was penned to target this specifically, to discover that we therians/otherkin/transspecies folks/etc. really do exist and that the identity is starting to gain more traction especially among youth (thanks, TikTok). I don't think the guy that penned this bill is that one conservative (this dude apparently once tried to create "bigfoot hunting season" so. y'know. i don't think he's doing much research about anything lmao), but with the media attention this bill has gained, it's only a matter of time.

HOWEVER - THIS IS NOT A TIME TO PANIC. I literally cannot stress this enough. Panic is not the response we need to have, but rather vigilance and preparedness for the day nonhuman identities eventually do find their way into the spotlight so that we can be ready for whatever we need to do to fight back against whatever future bills may follow.

[jonesy-squish]

I've finally decided to do an intro post so here we go. (:

My name is Luigi(or that's at least what I'm going by right now),you can call me Luigi,Lui,Gi,Willard,Will,Willi,Bill,Jone,Jones,Jonesy,Kirby,or you could come up with a nickname i dont mind that either ,I use He/They/It pronouns.<3

Some facts about me are:

•My favorite colors are:Black,Pastel pink,Pastel blue,and Pastel yellow

•I'm a cosplayer,I've been cosplaying since 2017 or 2018.Im currently working on making a Vox cosplay.

•My favorite music artist at the moment is Will Wood.<3

•I play a decent amount of video games.The most played game I've played is stardew valley.

•I love stuff animals.

•I always break the clips off of pens and mechanical pencils.

•I love bad movies(e.g. The velocipastor,inhumanwich,bloodsucking bastards,etc)

•My favorite animal is probably a biturong or a zebra shark

I used to have an older account but I lost access to it when I got my new phone lol.(It was basically just a dhmis blog, @geraldsverygerrythoughts if anyone is curious,(@im-gerry was one of my old accs sideblogs))

Currently,I'm really into Spooky month and Stardew valley(mainly spooky month rn lol),but I'm always willing to talk about the following: Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel(I wish to make it ABUNTDANTLY CLEAR,that I DO NOT SUPPORT VIVZIEPOP,i do enjoy her shows ik there flaws and i desperately hope for change,the reason i still remain to watch hb and hh is because of the nostaligic memories of me and my cousins watching them when i still lived with them.I dont like VivziePop as a person,i dont support her,i and her shows are insanly flawed in many many regards.I just want to make this clear),Undertale/Deltarune,Cuphead,Dhmis,The Stanley parable,Total Drama,TADC,Unicorn Wars,Ddlc,Animal Crossing,BATIM,Death and Taxes,mha(I'm not entirely caught up lol,nor do i especially like it anymore),eddsworld,the stanely parable,Jojo's bizarre adventure,Hellsing,BNA,She-ra,Centuarworld,Villianous.(There are probably more I can't think of lmao.if you arent sure if im i to something just me.)

Do not interact if:You are a homophobe,transphobe,aphobe rasict,pedophile,anti-furry,zoophile,ableist,zionist,an asshole,etc,etc,etc.Someone who ships problematic ships,eg:child× adult ships,incest ships,etc,etc.if you like Nazi characters

This blog is basically just for art and random shit I think of.Eventually,instead of just posting Fandom related stuff I wanna start posting stuff about my ocs and whatnot which I will do at somepoint.<3

Other blogs: @irritated-incendiary (an Ignacio from spooky month ask/rp blog), @uneasy-itto (a spooky month oc ask blog), @dexter-the-exterminator (a dexter from spooky month ask/rp blog) , @the-prophet-of-the-universe (a spooky month oc ask/rp blog), @jamface-daily

Friends' blogs(go follow them): @blood-guts-goreeee , @father-gregors-guidance ,@alicethescenequeen @xachanimations

[otherkinnews]

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

[blqckooze]

AND FINALLY THE COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!!

For payments I’ll be using Venmo, though half of your payment must be upfront. You’ll then be sent a sketch and see how you like it, if approved, I’ll continue it. Once finished then you MUST pay the rest.

NO REFUNDS AFTER SKETCH IS APPROVED!!

NOTICE!!!!

I will NOT, without question, do the following:

NSFW, abuse, anti-lgbtq, anything with racial discrimination, fetishes or proshipping

I WILL do however:

Furry art, complicated designs, gore, object heads, and humans(, and animals but I’m still working on that hehe)

If you have any questions PLEASE DM ME ANY QUESTIONS!!!

[yousummonusonceyousummonustwice]

Hello, welcome to Drowsy Town :)

I MADE AN ASK BLOG FOR MY CHILDREN :D

Hi, it’s me @sundewhasaudhd , aka Sundew. I use all pronouns

I’m open to most asks, just no NSFW, or anything to do with insect and pedophilia. Other than that, I’m pretty much good. Oh also, since this is an ask blog and not an rp blog, no role play here please

Pokey is in blue and uses he/she/they pronouns

Blinky is in purple and uses he/they/it pronouns

Tinky is in orange and uses he/him pronouns

Nibbly is in pink and uses he/it/any food related neopronouns

Wiggly is in green and uses he/it pronouns

Webby is in black (or white, depending on weather you’re on dark mode or not) and uses she/they/it pronouns

And OOC stuff will be in red

Ships I’m open to talking about on this blog: Paulkotho, Tinkoffski, Bad Apple (which is what I’ve been calling Wilbur x Wiggly), Nibblinda, Bill x Blinky, Hollowebby, Paulkins, Lexthan, Barneston, Hollowduke, and Lautski (in no particular order)

DNI: queerphobes in ANY way (and that includes hating on xenogender people and people who use neopronouns), racists, sexist/misogynists, zionists, antisemitic/neo-nazis, islamophobes, anti therian and anti furry people

Have fun on my children’s blog :D

[limeade-l3sbian]

this is very anti feminist of me but i’m 🤏 this close to becoming a furry porn commission artist just so have some more spending money instead of living in anxiety bill to bill each month

I had a friend who did that in high school.