by Rod Williams, June 7, 2026- You've got to watch this. It is unbelievable that such a dumb thing is being debated in the Texas House. Rep. James Talerico does an excellent job pushing back against this craziness.
The issue before the House is the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act. an act Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces. It would "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." The exempt days are Halloween and maybe some other days listed in the bill, but there cannot be more than five such days a year.
Under this act, schools cannot let kids wear animal collars or lick themselves, and the most bizarre part is that it prohibits schools from providing litter boxes for kids who think they are cats. Wow! There must be an epidemic of kids thinking they are cats if the state legislature has to pass a law to address the issue. Actually, there is zero evidence that kids pretending to be animals even exist in Texas.
One might think one nut-job introduced this bill and make excuses. Sometimes that happens. A lone legislator may introduce any stupid thing he wants. When I served in the Metro Council, there was a Black councilman from north Nashville who was as dumb as a box of rocks. He introduced a memorializing resolution calling on the city to build a welcoming landing pad for space aliens. The act was quickly tabled, but not until after the sponsor defended it and the motion to table was explained. This didn't amount to much, yet this story made national news. I thought this FURRIES Act in Texas may be something similar to Nashville welcoming space aliens. Wrong!
The FURRIES Act has 56 co-sponsors! All of the co-sponsors are Republicans. The Texas House has 150 members. Republicans hold 88 of those seats and Democrats 62. Let that sink in: 56 of 88 Republicans voted for an act prohibiting school children from acting in a manner consistent with thinking they are animals and prohibiting Texas schools from accommodating them.
What has happened to Republicans? I know stupidity can run in both parties, but all of my adult life, I thought the Republican Party was the smarter and more serious of the two parties. Now, Republicans keep outdoing themselves in saying and proposing stupid things. The bill's current status is "left pending in committee," so I don't know if that means it could still be acted upon or is dead for this session.
I am more and more skeptical of Republicans' fight on social issues. I wonder if there really is a problem with high school boys identifying as trans and playing in women's sports. Is there a problem with trans girls using the girls' bathroom? I doubt there really is a problem with porn in school libraries. I wonder how often it really occurs that a teacher calls a child by their preferred pronoun and the parent doesn't know. I wonder how often a teacher has displayed a Pride flag in the classroom. If any of these things have occurred, I wonder if the issue could not have been dealt with at the classroom, school, or schoolboard level.
I am more and more having the feeling that Republicans are swatting at gnats that don't even exist.
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