Texas House Bill number 4814—better known as the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (or F.U.R.R.I.E.S.)1 Act—was proposed by Stan Gerdes, and would attempt to suppress the expression of furries in schools. It does this by editing the Texas education code to:
"prohibit any non-human behavior by a student, including presenting himself or herself, on days other than exempt days, as anything other than a human being"
It defines exempt days as things as any days within a week of halloween, and no more than 5 other (school designated) days per year.2 Something else it does is expand the definition of abuse to inculde "in an education setting, allowing or encouraging the child to develop a dependence on or a belief that non-human behaviors are societally acceptable".
Some specific examples of furry expression it prohibits include:
- Making animal noises.
- Wearing pet accessories such as collars.
- Wearing fur.3
- Artificial animal ears.4
It also prohibits such common/s activities such as:
- AND-I-QUOTE: "using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine, or other human byproducts".5
- Licking. (for purposes of grooming or maintenance)
1Don't ask where the S in that acronym came from, or do—just don't ask me—ask Mr. Gerdes. In fact, please do ask him. I'm sure he would love to answer any questions you might have about Texas House Bill #4814.
2Those other days must meet certain requirements which can be found in the text of the bill(see below).
3This could infact prohibit one of my warmer winter jackets which includes a faux-fur cosmetic thingy around the edge of the hood. It could also be (mis)construed to prohibit wearing any garment containing wool.
4Presumably including headphones with cat-ears, hence the title of the writeup. Oddly, the specific wording seems to imply that wearing actual animal ears would be perfectly fine.
5This is not something that happens, or has ever happened. See cat children for more details.
For the specific text of the bill, you can read it here: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/pdf/HB04814I.pdf
For information on the progress of the bill, go here: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/tx/89/bills/TXB00079128/