North Dakota Republicans…enough said


They’re up to their usual tricks, pushing more hate bills.

Six Republican members of the North Dakota Legislature introduced a bill Wednesday that would send a clear message to nonhuman-identified students: You’re not wanted in the Roughrider State.

The two-page bill, which is primarily a measure seeking to prohibit schools in the state from accommodating transgender youths,

Wait. Stop there. The bill is mainly about discriminating against trans kids, but that isn’t newsworthy enough anymore, so the news article is focusing on…furries. It turns out the sponsors of the bill have been listening to propaganda about litter boxes. To resume…

includes a subsection aimed at a different — and theoretical — category of students.

“A board of a school district, a public or private school, or a teacher in a public or private school may not … Adopt a policy establishing or providing a place, facility, school program, or accommodation that caters to a student’s perception of being any animal species other than human,” the bill, labeled an “emergency measure” by its authors, states.

This section of the bill appears to be connected to an urban myth about litter boxes in U.S. schools that spread among conservative Republicans ahead of the November election. An NBC News report published in October found this myth — about schools providing accommodations, like litter boxes, for children who identify as cats — to be untrue.

Do you think this is stupid? Wait until you hear directly from the ditz behind it all. She’s posing in front of some sort of Christian slogan, which is totally unsurprising.

The interviewer asks exactly the right questions: “Do we have any confirmed sightings of furries in North Dakota schools?” I don’t specifically have a confirmed number on that. She doesn’t know any. And she repeats the litter box myth. This is all a purely hypothetical exercise. Then she says it is happening in Minnesota! No, it’s not. You don’t get to use my state as a shield for your stupidity, lady.

But let’s not forget that she’s using this nonsense about furries as a stalking horse for her real agenda: she’s a transphobe elected to state congress who wants to implement her hate and religious dogma in North Dakota law.

Comments

  1. birgerjohansson says

    When asking a Repub politician about an obvious urban myth, it used to be they lied to manipulate the rubes (see “death panels”).
    Today, it is a 50% chance the Republican in question believes in the crap himself/herself. This category may overlap with people who find Qanon “too highbrow”.

  2. says

    There is some truth to the litter box myth, but it has nothing to do with furries:

    https://www.newsweek.com/colorado-schools-issuing-buckets-kitty-litter-students-go-bathroom-during-lockdowns-school-1455261

    In other words, this is how students can GO TO THE EFFING BATHROOM DURING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER LOCKDOWN AND NOT GET KILLED.

    Sorry. But no: there is nothing to do with furries in this. Nothing. It’s trying to keep students alive and not shot during a mass shooting. JFC.

  3. says

    I think congresspeople who use stalking horses should be provided with stalls to sleep in and nice bales of hay to eat.
    Oh, and have their shoes nailed to their feet. I mean, let’s be accommodating.

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    Yes, “people identifying as non-humans” is a myth, and these North Dakota Republican spent a lot of time fishing in the toilet bowl for something to float their boat.

    But consider: if furry-identifiers actually did exist, this bill is about being explicitly cruel to them.

  5. Larry says

    In other words, this is how students can GO TO THE EFFING BATHROOM DURING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER LOCKDOWN AND NOT GET KILLED.

    Who are they to abrogate the Patriot’s 2nd amendment rights?

  6. says

    I’ve been questioning the necessity of TWO Dakotas for a long time. Someone told me recently that the reason we have two is because the Republican party wanted two more senate seats. Not sure if that’s true or not, but it sounds legit.

  7. microraptor says

    Ray Ceeya @6: I can’t confirm it, but that is the reported reason for why the Dakota territory was split into two states despite its extremely small population.

  8. says

    @Reginald Selkirk 4
    They do exist. Otherkin. I’m the basic furry. Otherkin are not interested passing waste like our tens of millions of years ago ancestors. I’m curious about looking for vestigial tail and other associated brain territory with respect to otherkin, I have odd bits of vestigial muscle activity myself (auricular muscles, vestigial eat movement), but I put this in childhood psychosocial development. And I hear you can catch furry as an adult.

  9. ANB says

    Most historians agree that the real reason for Congress’s eagerness to accept the separate Dakotas was a Republican ploy to bolster numbers in Congress. Former Indiana Senator Benjamin Harrison, a Republican (and noted man with a beard), became president in 1889. Congress had been predominantly Democratic until Harrison took office, and the admission of the two Dakotas gifted the House with a Republican majority.

    That’s taken from Mental Floss, but I remember reading this a long time ago. Being lazy because I’ve been up for over 24 hours and just finished a 12 hour graveyard shift (I’m in CA).

  10. ANB says

    I “drew” a line between the first paragraph and my comments, but this platform doesn’t allow that to show, apparently.

    To state what should be obvious: I cut and pasted the first para, used a (non existent “line” in this forum, to separate it from my brief commentary.

  11. raven says

    Test
    A_____________________________B

    I just used the underline key and hit it multiple times.

    HTML works also.

  12. chrislawson says

    not millions of pandemic deaths
    not ecological collapse
    not mass shootings
    not domestic murders
    not white supremacist terrorism
    …but this is an emergency

  13. says

    It’s a big cultural attempt to assert dominance over sexual behavior in a general way, but they have no idea what they want to control, and “they” are unified in a very unstable way that has to do with culture and not any actual real biology.

  14. chrislawson says

    @4–

    Dittoing Brony. Furries/otherkin most definitely exist. I’ve met a few, and no doubt there are others I have met without knowing (it is, after all, stigmatised and I am not myself part of the community). There seems to be a bit of overlap with SF/fantasy fandom.

  15. raven says

    I’d barely heard of Furries and don’t know much about them.

    Not all of them have sexualized being a furry.

    “But they also reported that most of their involvement in the fandom was non-sexual. Men reported spending 34 percent of their online roleplaying time on sexual content, and women reported spending only 21.4 percent. Nearly half of male furries, and a large majority of women, reported that sexual content played little or no role in their introduction to the fandom: ”

    It is basically a hobby or lifestyle for a small number of people.

    9 questions about furries you were too embarrassed to ask

    9 questions about furries you were too embarrassed to ask
    By Dylan Matthewsdylan@vox.com Updated Mar 27, 2015, 3:46pm EDT

    Dylan Matthews is a senior correspondent and head writer for Vox’s Future Perfect section and has worked at Vox since 2014. He is particularly interested in global health and pandemic prevention, anti-poverty efforts, economic policy and theory, and conflicts about the right way to do philanthropy.
    Furries — people with an interest in anthropomorphized animals, like Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokémon — have come in for a lot of ridicule over the years from posters on sites like Something Awful and 4chan. Mainstream press accounts tend to portray furries as sexual fetishists united by a common interest in sex in animal costumes.

    But survey evidence suggests a lot of these stereotypes are wrong (very few furries think sex in animal costumes is a good idea, for instance). Here’s a brief guide to the furry community, which hopefully can clear up some of these misunderstandings.

    1) So being a furry means you run around in a fur suit all the time, right?
    anthrocon
    Fur-suiters on parade at Anthrocon 2007. Note that most of the people on the convention floor aren’t suited. (Douglas Muth)

    Fur-suiting and the furry community tend to be conflated in the popular press, but research by the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, which studies the furry fandom, suggests fur-suiters are a minority of that community.

    A 2007 survey found that only 26.4 percent of respondents at a furry convention reported owning a fur-suit and 30 percent reported wearing one. A 2014 survey found that tails are the most commonly owned fur-suit component, with 48.1 percent of respondents at Furry Fiesta 2014 reporting owning a tail. Only 13 percent reported owning a full suit, while 34.3 percent reported wearing any clothing or accessories associated with their furry persona or “fursona” (more on that in a sec).

    2) Is being a furry just a sexual fetish?
    No, though, like with any other fan interest (video games, comics, etc.) there are sexual themes present. While sexual activity with other furries (known as “yiffing,” after the sound foxes make during sex) is part of the subculture for some, others maintain a non-erotic interest in the subject.

    Furries are typically subject to media portrayals that overemphasize the sexual aspect of the fandom, such as this bit from 30 Rock:

    Furry Josh Strom explained to Boing Boing’s Lisa Katayama, “We go to conventions to hang out with friends, maybe buy something like art or badges, go to a discussion panel or see a show. Swinger parties and fetishes are there, but that’s not what the fandom is about.” And the focus on sex in fur suits is particularly wrongheaded. For one thing, only a small minority of furries own full fur suits. For another, as Plante points out, “Nearly all fur-suiters will make it explicitly clear that sex in a fur suit is completely undesirable (not arousing, damaging to the suit, and not something they’re interested in doing).”

    A survey at Furry Fiesta 2013 found that 96.3 percent of male respondents and 78.3 percent of female ones reported viewing furry pornography (which, it should be noted, is a broad category and typically quite similar to regular porn albeit with furry traits added); men reported looking at furry porn 41.5 times per month on average, while women reported looking 10.5 times per month.

    But they also reported that most of their involvement in the fandom was non-sexual. Men reported spending 34 percent of their online roleplaying time on sexual content, and women reported spending only 21.4 percent. Nearly half of male furries, and a large majority of women, reported that sexual content played little or no role in their introduction to the fandom: continues

  16. raven says

    I have to say that my interest in Furries which was low, and now even lower.

    Who cares anyway and why?

    .1. What is the harm here? Who is this woman protecting and from which group.

    .2. Last I heard, the USA was (supposedly) a free country.
    If people want to identify as Furries and wear a fur suit, who is going to stop them and why?

    If anyone needs to have a bill targeting them, it is mindless haters like these 6 GOP legislators. In fact, hate speech can be illegal and hate crimes are a form of terrorism.

  17. Doc Bill says

    The bill’s sponsor is a delusional, god-soaked high school graduate who ran on a “god platform” to return the country to biblical roots. A heady combination of stupidity, ignorance, multiple phobias and paranoia that defines the GOPQ today.

  18. says

    This obsessive insanity about furries demonstrates how imbecilic and criminally negligent these xtian terrorist gop aholes are. They are ignoring so many important topics that could improve society just to satisfy their bigotry. I would think that many people, of all ages, like to escape to their furry identity to try to avoid that kind of xtian terrorist insanity.

  19. says

    @22 Brony, Social Justice Cenobite — I think you have a point: These north dakota imbeciles, like all of the rtwingnut xtian terrorists that are trying to drag us back into the dark ages, are all ‘disney squirrels’.

  20. says

    I can even predict how the furry moral panic might advance. Furries are a microcosm with respect to social problems. So of course there is a problem with furry art involving sexual underage characters. A perfect thing to cherry-pick and pretend to be concerned about the children with.

  21. says

    One of our org. members just reminded me there are SERIOUS sexual connotations to their stupid state motto ‘the Roughrider State’. LOL WTF

  22. says

    As someone who has known a few furries, I have to say they are generally more rational and kinder than christians. If anyone should be legislated against, its the dangerous googoobrained christians and their scammyscammy preachers.

  23. chrislawson says

    Jeebus, drew, I look forward to the day you contribute to a thread rather than post patently transparent conservative deflections.

    [1] Laws are being enacted. That makes it a threat.
    [2] They are being enacted by the christofascist faction of the Republican Party. That makes it right-wing.
    [3] FOX will literally pivot 180° in a day if it suits their agenda and then flip 180° back again, as they have on the importance of classified document management — criminal in 2016 when Hilary Clinton used a private email server, to “defund the FBI” (seriously!) in August for raiding Trump properties, to suddenly it’s a hanging offence again now that Biden’s on the hook for it. Same with Trump’s sudden presidential suitability when it became clear he was going to win the GOP nomination. Same with protesting on Supreme Court judges’ lawns, which they decided was unforgivable when abortion rights activists did this in November after literally years of defending anti-abortion protestors for doing the same thing. You can’t use FOX as a diagnostic test of what counts as right-wing, only what FOX deems will play to its mind-numbed audience on any given day.

  24. says

    So now furries “identifying” as nonhuman are a “theoretical” category of students? I guess that’s as close as we’ll ever get to an overt admission that they never existed in the first place.

  25. vucodlak says

    I wore a dog collar* in high school (and college, and beyond), though it had nothing (well, very little) to do with being a furry. I was/am a furry, but the real reason I wore a collar is the sense that I’ve lived my entire life leashed to the expectations of others,** rather than being able to live my own life. The collar was my acknowledgement of the understanding that I lived for others not entirely of my own will, as well as a very minor act of rebellion. In other words, it was my way of saying I felt like a whipped dog.

    I wasn’t alone in wearing a collar, though- a lot of my goth friends (yes, I’m also a goth, though I was never brave/invested enough to go all-out) also wore collars. Some simply because that was the fashion, and some for more personal reasons like me.

    The reason I bring this up is that a lot of people have assumed I’m a furry because I used to*** wear a dog collar, and some of them definitely treated me as less-than because of it. While some of those who treated me poorly because they thought I was a furry might not have done so if they’d understood the real reason I do it, I doubt it would have changed most such people’s minds. They hated me because I was different, period. Whether I was different because I was a member of despised and misunderstood fandom or because I of a quirk in my psychology doesn’t really matter. I’m different, and to the kind of person who crafts or supports a bill like the one in the OP difference is to be rubbed out by any means necessary.

    *A literal leather dog collar from a pet store, not a fashion or BDSM collar.

    **Rejection sensitive dysphoria sucks.

    ***I still would if it didn’t aggravate my eczema. I really wish I could still wear it- my progress rainbow heart “Queer AF” keychain would look good on the tag loop.

  26. lumipuna says

    There is some truth to the litter box myth, but it has nothing to do with furries:

    https://www.newsweek.com/colorado-schools-issuing-buckets-kitty-litter-students-go-bathroom-during-lockdowns-school-1455261

    In other words, this is how students can GO TO THE EFFING BATHROOM DURING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER LOCKDOWN AND NOT GET KILLED.

    Sorry. But no: there is nothing to do with furries in this. Nothing. It’s trying to keep students alive and not shot during a mass shooting. JFC.

    At the start of this winter, Finland was facing the possibility of rolling electricity outages for the first time ever, due to restricted production capacity. Thus far, the winter has been mild and the threat hasn’t materialized, but at one point an official, controversial instruction was published for schoolteachers on how to prepare for long outages during the schoolday. Obviously, children need to be kept safe an under supervision, but it was somewhat unrealistically suggesting that some sort of teaching could resume during an outage (in winter, when it’s usually quite dark and too cold to be outdoors).

    Anyway, the instruction suggested, controversially that emergency dry toilet solutions might be needed during an outage because toilets might not function. Teachers objected to being made responsible for this problem, on top of everything else. I don’t know if this same thing is a common consideration in US schools – I’ve heard rolling outages are a common threat in some areas.

    (It was somewhat surreal to see a “school kitty litter debate” on Finnish social media when another, unrelated school kitty litter debate was going on in the US).

  27. cheerfulcharlie says

    Which is worse? Furries? Or swag bellied, bearded bozos wearing body armor, tactical vests and carrying AR-15s?

  28. says

    So every time she’s challenged and asked for evidence she “can’t say anything about that”. She also complains that the mythical problem has progressed from students identifying as animals to ones identifying as rocks. Well rocks can’t speak so she must be one. There’s her proof. I’ll vote for a bill to shut her up.

  29. chrislawson says

    vucodlak — if you or a trusted friend have the skills, you can make one yourself out of something that doesn’t trigger your eczema. Cotton is a good choice although obviously very different in texture. If you’re not sure, get some swatches and tuck them somewhere that will have several hours skin contact as a test. Just make sure any studs/buckles are not nickel or plated nickel as this is a major cause of contact dermatitis and the plating will wear off.

  30. says

    Oh god, it’s “Litterbox-Gate” all over again. No schools are not putting litter boxes in schools for children who identify as cats. That’s just not a thing.

  31. StevoR says

    @ ^ Ray Ceeya : Truth. Not here :

    https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/cats/13816064

    Not in Oz as Australia’s Murdoch propaganda rags have also claimed – back in March last year – & not anywhere else either.

    From that link :

    So where does this nonsense come from?

    Well, to show it wasn’t just Brisbane, (Oz – Ed.) The Courier-Mail re-published with its story a US video from January, in which a mother from Michigan slammed schools there for allowing students to identify as cats: But what The Courier-Mail failed to tell readers is that the viral video has been thoroughly debunked. After the schools’ superintendent said there is, quote, “no truth whatsoever” to the claim and there have “never been litter boxes” in the school district.

    And what about those cat-identifying students in Brisbane?

    Well, like The Courier-Mail, we have been unable to find any. But if you see any around, please let us know.

    As for the Dakota state split in twain as a political trick, well,. how were they allowed to get away with that at the time & also can’t two play at that game?

    Maybe California should be split into three or five separate states all voting and sending Democratic congresscritters into Congress? Maybe if the Democratic side does this and takes it to the absurd extremes – well, reveals again the absurd extreme – reason might prevail and everyone might agree that the system needs to change so that can’t be done and perhaps the Dakotas should be reunited and Peurto Rico given statehood and some sort of reasonable set up established.

    Also, you guys states-side seem to really need the equivalent of our Independent Electoral Commission in my view. FWIW, Wiki the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).. Or some form of independnent non-partisan umpire if there can now be any such thing?

  32. Kagehi says

    All I can say to this whole thing is that I have to just laugh that people rag on Furries for thinking the female (or male) fox from Disney’s Robin Hood are kind of hot, but they utterly fail to comprehend that this is literally the same thing as thinking the same thing about game characters, like the Asari, or worse, the Quarions (who are literally described as “bird like”, even if we never see them without a suit on, but do have backward facing legs). I just have to bloody shake my head in incomprehension at it all. Also.. Not seeing them trying to pass laws on theoretical students that might paint themselves blue, and style their hair to look like aliens (which also don’t f-ing exist).

  33. birgerjohansson says

    The bill does not go far enough. We have seen numerous films depicting how blood-drinking people infiltrate the student body, yet these six Republicans completely ignore this issue. And anyone growing up in the eighties know satanism is a big issue.
    These six RINOs need to be called out in media for their disregard of the main threats facing American youths.

  34. raven says

    What is this obsession Republicans have with trans people?

    It is because Trans are a very small minority without a lot of popular support.

    The christofascists are simply bullies and they always pick on groups a lot smaller than themselves.

    If it wasn’t Trans, it would be some other group.
    They just skip from hate target to hate target. Blacks, women, gays, Trans, Muslims, migrants, scientists, health care providers (pandemic and vaccines), and the next group up will be…Ukrainians.

    Nothing says jesus loves you like helping the Russians genocide the Ukrainians.

  35. raven says

    Here is another one.
    Indiana. All the right wingnut states just copy each other.
    Once again, they are prohibiting something that doesn’t even exist.

    It is all rather stupid.
    In point of fact, they can’t prohibit children from identifying as animals. All they can do is prohibit them from wearing fur suits to school. And who wants to do that anyway?

    Everything I’ve seen says it must be miserable to grow up in Red states these days.
    The right wingnuts like to attack children because they don’t have the Civil Rights protection of the law, they are smaller, and they don’t have enough money to hire lawyers.

    Indiana lawmaker targets furries in schools. Schools say there’s no problem

    Indiana lawmaker targets furries in schools. Schools say there’s no problem
    Arika Herron, Indianapolis Star
    Thu, January 26, 2023 at 3:29 PM PST·4 min read

    A bill working through the Indiana Senate would reiterate that schools are allowed to enforce dress codes and curb disruptive behavior to address concerns about students identifying as furries.

    It follows a nationwide wave of claims – none proven – that students are dressing and acting like animals in classrooms.

    Indiana Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, authored Senate Bill 380. The “various education matters” bill makes changes to how the state calculates high school graduation rates and then also includes this line: “a school corporation may adopt a policy concerning student dress code or disruptive behavior.” When introducing the bill in the Senate’s education committee, which Raatz chairs, he said it was to address concerns about students who “may be imitating or were behaving like a furry.”

    “Essentially, what this signals to school corporations is that through the dress code you have the ability to drive how students dress,” he said.

    Parents and school employees brought the complaints to him, Raatz said, declining to name their districts or schools in an interview with IndyStar. The bill does not require schools to make changes, he said, but reinforces the idea that they can.

    School corporations already have the right to create and enforce a dress code, as many do. Raatz said this line was added to a different section of code – that governing the duty and powers of school corporations to supervise and discipline students – and the wording slightly different from the section of law that already allows schools to implement dress codes.

    Sen. Jeff Raatz leads the Senate education committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. The committee would hear House Bill 1041, which could ban transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams level K-12.
    Sen. Jeff Raatz leads the Senate education committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. The committee would hear House Bill 1041, which could ban transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams level K-12.
    Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

    Indiana schools say it’s not an issue
    IndyStar hasn’t been able to find evidence of an Indiana school district actually reporting that students are dressing as animals. An online search turned up no verified reports of furries in schools here, nor did requests sent to several districts. Representatives of Westfield Washington Schools and the districts in South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lawrence Township and Wayne Township said it has not been a problem in their classrooms.

    “We are not aware of any students dressing as furries or animals during the school day in the M.S.D. of Wayne Township,” said Jeff Butts, that district’s superintendent.

    Hamilton Southeastern Schools said the biggest issue they’ve dealt with around “furries” is the time it takes to combat untrue rumors.

    “We have not had disruptions that I am aware of with students acting out as ‘furries,'” said Emily Pace Abbotts, HSE spokesperson. “This overall issue, I believe stemmed from national media, which also spread that schools had litter boxes in their restrooms. This is not true for Hamilton Southeastern Schools – and is worrisome that people would believe such.”

    The district already has a dress code in its student handbooks to limit “clothing distractions.”

    Kim Patterson, a middle school teacher in rural Howard County, said there are no furries in schools there, either. Patterson is an Indiana State Teachers Association board member.

    “Only ‘furry’ kids I see are high school boys who don’t shave,” Patterson said.

    Last fall, several people came to an Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation board meeting, the Evansville Courier & Press reported, to raise concerns that the district was allowing students to dress and behave as animals, even providing litter boxes in bathrooms.

    “There are no litter boxes in our schools. Period. There never will be,” Evansville Superintendent David Smith said after that meeting.

    Ruth Baize and Theresa Finn talk to the EVSC school board about "furries," on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Baize said schoolchildren are being allowed to dress and behave like animals and disrupt school. EVSC officials say that is not happening.
    Ruth Baize and Theresa Finn talk to the EVSC school board about “furries,” on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Baize said schoolchildren are being allowed to dress and behave like animals and disrupt school. EVSC officials say that is not happening.
    What’s a furry?
    At the heart of the rumors ‒ repeated by conservative politicians and commentators nationwide ‒ is the idea that schools are letting children identify as animals as an extension of allowing them to choose their own gender identity independent of the one assigned at birth.

    According to Furscience, a team of scientists studying the furry fandom, the term furry describes a diverse community of fans, artists, writers, gamers and role players. Most furries create for themselves an anthropomorphized animal character with whom they identify. Some furries wear elaborate costumes or paraphernalia such as animal ears or tails, or represent themselves as anthropomorphic animals in online communities. While a small percentage of those surveyed think they have a deeper connection to animals, the vast majority do not identify as animal.

    Though many self-identifying furries are teenagers and young adults, according to data collected by Furscience, it doesn’t mean that all students who wear a headband with cat ears on it – a popular accessory among kids sold at major retailers – are part of the furry community.

    SB 380 is expected to receive a vote from the Senate’s education committee next week. Should it pass, as bills sponsored by powerful committee chairs usually do, it would move onto the full Senate for debate.

  36. StevoR says

    @48. raven : Next group? Aren’t they already hating on them – and everyone else still as well? Have they ever stopped hating?

    Funny way to worship their ancient dead Judaean hero and supposed role model who explictly said “Love thy neighbour” – including even those damn heretic Samaritans that were really disliked and pariahs back then.. Plus help the poor, pay your taxes, and pray in private among other things they totally ignore.

  37. kayden says

    We’ve come to the point where people like this aren’t laughed out of the legislature and public life. Instead, their nonsense is taken seriously and becomes law.