Otherkin News

From Within Our Hearts Zine an Otherhearted Zine

Sun, 10 May 2026 15:38:59 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Submissions now open!

There's not nearly enough talk about hearttypes, so we wanted to to get conversations rolling by making a collaborative zine about it!

Otherhearted describes a person who has a strong fundamental connection to a species or character which impacts their core sense of self. This is most commonly described in terms of identifying with a being as opposed to identifying as one, although this is not always the case. - Otherkin Wiki

This zine will be a collection of artwork, writing and more all about being otherhearted. Whatever that means to you - both fiction and nonfiction pieces would be accepted. If you got something you wanna express about hearttypes, we'd love to hear it!

Submissions are due by November 15, 2026. Once the deadline has passed, the submissions will be compiled and posted on itch.io as a free PDF.

Learn more about how to participate and the submission guidelines on our info doc here

comments

Reminder that this is a community-run blog

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:57:04 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

This is your community, and Otherkin News has always been meant for many voices, since it was created in 2009 as a Livejournal Community (now Dreamwidth Community). Don’t assume that regular posters here are the only ones meant to write for it. This space is for you to share about current events too! If you find a scoop, you’re welcome to go ahead and write about it here for yourself. Our moderators check to make sure that submissions are on topic. If it’s your first post here or your submission doesn’t get approved on the same day, notify a mod by email to make sure they see it soon.

During the past few years, moral panics about therians have been spreading all over the world. We’re seeing urban legends of that kind since December 2021, when Republicans in the US started saying furries use litter boxes in public schools and started proposing laws against it in 2023. Last year, Russia started proposing bans against quadrobics and spreading unsubstantiated rumors that a quadrobist child had attacked someone in a park. (A colleague who hasn't posted here informs me those rumors spread through other former Soviet nations). This year in Argentina and other Latin American nations, variations on the same rumor about a violent quadrobist child circulated with so much visibility that the Associated Press wrote about it. The development of these urban legends are now complicated by language barriers and as well as AI-generated misinformation, as in some viral videos of quadrobists fact-checked by Mala Espina Check. Especially if you’re fluent in relevant languages, I encourage you to please post to here with your own article, a round-up of news links (cite your sources properly!), or your own clearly-marked opinion piece. Just sign into Dreamwidth and submit your post to us in this form.

[Edited February 28, 2026 to add links.]

comments

Happy November, the Draconity 2025 zine is here!

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 14:41:19 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Draconity 2025 Zine is available for download!

This 66 page zine is a collection of pieces created by nonhumans and alterhumans about what draconity means to them. Both fiction and nonfiction pieces were accepted. Also, this zine imposed no set definition on what is or isn’t “dragon enough.” We're not a cop, and if someone feels the label fits them, then it does!

Thank you to everyone who submitted to this zine! This project is a labor of love created for free to give back to the alterhuman and nonhuman communities.

Alt text is included for all of the artwork entries.

Download for free on our itch.io!

comments

Alterhuman Zines - we're now live!

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:02:40 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Welcome to our hoard of Alterhuman Zines

Welcome to Alterhuman Zines! We're working to archive the wonderful creativity of the alterhuman and nonhuman communities - zines in particular!

We do this by hosting a library of all of the zines we've managed to get our claws on that:

Were made by an alterhuman or nonhuman
Are about alterhumanity or nonhumanity

Our entries are categorized alphabetically by author on our browse page. Each entry lists when it was published, by who, includes a description of the contents and links to the original source (along with an archived version from our hoard for your convenience should anything happen to the original.)

We encourage you to download your own pdf copies from our archive!

Browse the archive

comments

New peer-reviewed psych article on therianthropy, clinical & otherwise

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:44:07 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

The peer-reviewed scientific journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews published an article about therianthropy in their July 2025 issue. The first author of the article, Jan Dirk Blom, is a professor of Professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The second author, Brian Andrew Sharpless, is a clinical psychologist practicing and licensed in Maryland and Virginia. In the past, Sharpless has published together with Blom about Cotard's Delusion (in which people believe they are dead), and Blom has spoken to popular media as an expert on clinical lycanthropy to explain how it compares and contrasts with otherkin.

Here is the APA citation and abstract for their new article:

Blom, J. D., & Sharpless, B. A. (2025). A systematic review on clinical therianthropy and a proposal to conceptualize zoomorphism as a diagnostic spectrum. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 174, 106193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106193

"Clinical therianthropy involves the delusional belief that one transforms into an animal and assumes its characteristics. We conducted a systematic review and identified 77 published cases. Of the many theriotypes reported, 68 % involved transformations into canines. Men debuted at a significantly earlier age than women; duration ranged from days (25 %) to weeks (12 %), months (33 %), and years (31 %). Associated conditions included psychotic disorders (41 %), psychotic depression (24 %), bipolar disorder (18 %), and Cotard's syndrome (12 %), while 16 % engaged in other-directed physical violence. Treatment resulted in full remission (58 %) and partial remission (33 %) of the symptoms of clinical therianthropy, although the associated conditions were often chronic in nature and overall prognosis tended to be poor. We also discuss the history and reported etiologies of clinical therianthropy and propose a 'two-hit' pathophysiological model involving cenesthesiopathy and delusion formation. Diagnostic, therapeutic and forensic implications are also discussed. Lastly, we provide suggestions for a diagnostic spectrum that includes clinical and non-clinical cases, the latter comprising therians, furries, otherkin, and other people who experience varying levels of identification with animals."

You can legitimately read their full article for free.

I'm posting about this immediately after having spotted it in my RSS feed, because I don't want to further delay the news about a peer-reviewed article. Later, I'll do a deep reading and write a marginalia on it. Here are some of my thoughts about the wording of this abstract, from my background as a community historian. Before the therian community developed in the 1990s, psychologists have interchangeably called clinical lycanthropy "therianthropy" to acknowledge that the delusions can be about transformation into species other than wolves. However, "theriotype" is a slang word that originated in the online therian community. This concerns me about the degree to which the authors take care to differentiate between the clinical and non-clinical, in conceptual framework as well as in subjects. I encourage you to read their article and share your thoughts on it in the comments to this Dreamwidth post, where I'll post some of my thoughts later as well.

comments

Nonhuman and similar survey (2026)

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:20:23 GMT

Posted by: soluna

I've started doing an annual alterhumanity survey. I'm aware that it's not yet 2026, but I've released the 2026 survey so I can close the 2025 one and organize the results.

Survey: https://forms.gle/sfPQHaxyY8sjdXVG6

2025 results (incomplete): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRg6kyud_l3h1asgiZD1CBwToZvnEomrLDr9ZnCz1HvFH-V6-vqbiNBB64Sc2VF6jmEBOUp8s0tlznp/pub

Tumblr post (for reblogging/reposting): https://www.tumblr.com/audhd-catboy/794253631457263616/oh-also-i-only-have-tumblr-but-feel-free-to-post?source=share

comments

Fictionkin Symbol Survey

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 19:23:10 GMT

Posted by: bedes

I'm currently collecting data on a hopeful "universal fictionkin symbol" -- both the community's favorite already-coined symbol, and what the community would want to see in a symbol representing fictionkin. It is intended to be answered by fictionkin (defined as "identifying with fictionkinity") only, is entirely anonymous, and has a very short time demand (around 5-10 minutes). One answer per body, please!

SURVEY
TUMBLR POST (if you'd like to reblog!)

This survey will run for a decent bit of time to try and make sure that a good sample size is collected. It will close on November 20th, and the results will be summarized and shared once it has been completed.

I'd love to have as much input from fictionkin as possible! If you could share this survey to spaces you frequent which might have fictionkin, that would also be very helpful. Thank you!

comments

The time is now! HowlCon attendee registration is open

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:14:54 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

HowlCon attendee registration is now open!
Time sure flies - the con is only two and a half months away! So attendee registration is now open for HowlCon!

What is HowlCon?
HowlCon is a virtual camping-themed convention for alterhumans and nonhumans being hosted September 19-21, 2025! We are often so scattered across the web, we hope to serve as a gathering place for folks to meet others like themselves, make friends and generally have a good time. Our goal is to bring our community together for a weekend of fun and learning.

Register here!

The form will close a week before the con - September 12, 2025.

Also!

Panelist and artist applications have been extended to August 20

Looking for a way to engage more with the alterhuman and nonhuman community?

There's still time to register as a panelist or artist!

It's a great way to get a bunch of other critters together to do something fun - or learn something new! Make friends, share your ideas and put yourself out there.

comments

Draconity Zine Now Accepting Submissions

Sat, 17 May 2025 18:33:18 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

It’s time to celebrate! Let’s come together to create something for the community. Whether you got scales, feathers, fur or otherwise we want to hear from you. What does draconity mean to you?

This zine will be a collection of pieces created by nonhumans and alterhumans about any aspect of draconity they feel called to share. Also, this zine imposes no set definition on what is or isn’t “dragon enough.” If you feel like the label applies, you’re included!

What Can I Submit?

Both fiction and nonfiction pieces are accepted. As long as what you have in mind fits the theme, it’ll probably be a-ok.

Off the top of our head, we’re thinking of:

Essays of your personal experiences
Short stories
Poetry
Mock advice columns
Alternative covers
Fictional advertisements
Comics
Recipes

We welcome you to think outside the box and share whatever inspires you about being draconic!

How to Participate

Fill out our google form to submit an entry.

A name you would like the piece attributed to
Title of your submission
Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece
Any social media handle or personal website you'd like linked in the contributor section
A logo or icon for the contributor section

**If you would like to stay anonymous let us know

Submit the form multiple times for multiple entries. Members of systems are welcome to submit individually or collectively. Please let us know your preference when it comes to attribution.

Once the deadline has passed, these submissions will be put into the zine and it will be posted on itch.io as a free PDF.

Submissions are due by November 1st, 2025.

Submission Guidelines

Each individual may submit up to 3 works to be featured in Draconity. Comics and multi-image works count as one piece. Individuals within a system may each submit up to 3 works. All work must be your own! Anyone caught plagiarizing or submitting AI-generated work will be barred from entering Draconity and any future zines from us.

Written submissions and multi-part art entries should not exceed 10 pages. Please keep in mind the zine’s pages will be 8.5x11 and entries will be scaled accordingly to fit that size. We request all art submissions to be sent in either .jpg or .png file formats.

For stories that use multiple different fonts, we will do our best to preserve the general "feel" of your piece but cannot guarantee we will be able to use the exact fonts or sizes due to restrictions in what fonts we have access to, readability and overarching zine style.

Submissions Must Fit the Thematic Criteria of:

About draconity / being draconic

That’s it! Go wild.

As stated in the summary, we will not be policing what is or is not considered “dragon.” If you self-identify as draconic you count! No portfolio or prior zine experience is needed to be included either.

FAQ
Q: Where will the zine be hosted? What will it cost?

A: The zine will be hosted digitally on our itch.io and will be free to download.

Q: Is there a cap on submissions?

A: There is none, as long as the file doesn’t start getting too big for our computer we’ll do our best! If there are an unprecedented amount of submissions, we may have to delay the release. In the event that happens, we would communicate that through updates on our tumblr.

Q: Can I update my application after it’s been submitted?

A: Yes you may, as long as it’s done before the submission deadline.

Q: Can I rescind my submission?

A: Yes you may, as long as it’s done before the submission deadline. This is because once we begin work on the zine, having to remove content mid-way through would throw off the formatting of everything else after. Please take this into account before submitting.

Q: Will this zine allow NSFW entries?

A: No, nothing 18+ will be accepted.

Q: Can I submit already completed/published works?

A: Absolutely! It’s ok to submit past work that has been posted to your social media or website. Our only stipulation is that it cannot have been previously featured in another zine. This helps us keep each of our annual Draconity zines unique and distinct from one another.

Q: What is your timeline for the project?

A: Our submission deadline is November 1st, 2025. Our goal is to have the zine live by the end of the year. If something unforeseen happens and we are unable to make that deadline, we will post an update about it on our tumblr.

Q: I have another question!

A: Feel free to reach out to us at our email RuffledGryphgon(@)gmail(.)com with any other questions you have about the zine.

comments

HowlCon Panelist and Artist Applications Now Open!

Sun, 11 May 2025 02:21:34 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

HowlCon is a virtual camping-themed convention for alterhumans and nonhumans! It will be hosted September 19-21, 2025 virtually on Discord. Our goal is to bring our community together for a weekend of fun and learning.

We are often so scattered across the web, we hope to serve as a gathering place for folks to meet others like themselves, make friends and generally have a good time.

Artist

Apply Now

Signing up as an artist is the best way to maximize the visibility of your commissions during the con. Artists are given exclusive access to post their wares in our artist alley channels. And, if they wish, to add art streams to our official con schedule.

HowlCon is not responsible for any sales that take place.

Panelist

Apply Now

Have an event you want to host? This is what being a panelist is about! From meet-ups, lectures, discussions, gaming together, arts and crafts time, and many more ideas we don't have the space to list. Your topic does not have to be explicitly about alterhumans or nonhumans.

We accept panels hosted live, pre-recorded and through text.

Applications close July 1, 2025.

Learn more about HowlCon on our website.

comments

Texas's F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Bill Scheduled for Hearing Tuesday Morning

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 08:56:48 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (frameacloud) on 2025 April 26 for Otherkin News, which is a volunteer run project. We welcome other people to submit articles about alterhumanity in current events. Learn more about this project and what we’re looking for.

An anti-furry bill will be heard early this week

Texas House Bill 54, which nicknames itself the "F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act," has been scheduled for a public hearing on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 8:00 AM (Texas Legislature). This is a very early stage in the bill's progress toward becoming a law: it is not yet a law, and this hearing alone is not enough to make it become a law. Eighteen other bills about public education that will be heard during that session as well. Don't let the sensationalism of this bill distract you from the others: sometimes legislators intentionally write outrageous bills not only to satirize the issues they genuinely care about, but to distract attention away from other bills that they hope will pass into law unnoticed (Jones 2024). The government web page at the first link tells where people can submit comment or testify, where to see a live video broadcast of it. Common wisdom in the furry fandom warns to take caution in talking with the media or bringing other forms of publicity. Be aware that the bill author had said that he "expect[s] the subculture to show up in full furry vengeance at the committee hearing" (Bahari 2025). This suggests that he is looking forward to it being bait for an embarrassing spectacle.

Here's a recap of this bill and the urban legend behind it

In March, Republican Representative Stan Gerdes filed Texas House Bill 54 (TX HB 54, formerly TX HB 4814). Here is the state government's page about the bill, and here is their text of the bill itself. Calling itself the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act, the bill proposes an amendment to the state constitution to ban public schools from allowing students to do anything on its list of "non-human behaviors." The bill would impose tens of thousands of dollars of fines on faculty for allowing those behaviors, section 6(f), found on page 10. It would redefine abuse to include letting children think that those behaviors are societally acceptable, section 5(1)(A), found on page 7. Gerdes claimed he wrote the bill in response to an incident in the school district of Smithville, which is 45 miles away from Austin and has only 1,885 students. He didn't describe the incident, and journalists found no sign of it there (Bahari 2025; Villarreal 2025). The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, publicly spoke in favor of this particular bill, saying that these non-human behaviors were one of his reasons to take government funds away from public schools, using the money for some parents to send their children to private schools instead (Wermund 2025; Wermund and McKinley 2025).

Some of the activities described in the bill never happened in real life. For example, it forbids children from getting surgeries to make themselves look like animals, or using litter boxes in school, in section 2(a)(6), found on pages 5 through 6. It's the eleventh bill that Republicans in the US have sponsored in the past three years based on the litter box urban legend (Scribner 2025 March 18). The legend has been debunked by Reuters Fact Check, PolitiFact, and Snopes (Reuters, 2022; Czopek, 2022; Palma, 2023). Invented and popularized by Republican politicians and public figures in 2021, the urban legend says that public schools in the US have been providing litter boxes for students who identify as animals, which it calls furries. Journalists confirmed that has never happened. Only one district-- that of Columbine High School-- had litter in its emergency supplies for if classrooms were locked down without restroom access for many hours during a school shooting, along with other last-resort options for maintaining some rudiments of cleanliness and dignity while surviving unimaginable conditions (Kingkade et al 2022). That had some media attention in 2017 (Garcia 2017). In real life, use of litter boxes is not characteristic of the furry fandom. Nor do furries typically identify as animals (Plante et al, 2016, pp. 113-114). It has been decades that sexists have made grotesque comparisons between transgender restroom access and animal-people demanding to use something other than toilets, but it is no coincidence that the change from joke to urban legend happened after the 2020 Supreme Court decision G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board in favor of transgender-friendly restroom policies in high schools.

Why are Republicans doing this?

There are a variety of reasons why Republicans are spreading urban legend and why they're proposing laws based on it. The purpose of the urban legend and the bills is to satirize transgender students who ask to use the right restrooms for their genders. Another of its purposes is to justify defunding public schools in favor of private schools. Defunding public schools would make it impossible for some children with severe disabilities to go to school at all (RA Staff 2025 March 6).

Though the bill specifically names some activities that no students have done, it has other aspects that are worded so broadly that it would also apply to a range of behaviors that are normal in children's pretend play, teacher-guided learning activities, and hobby clubs (Codega 2025; Fields 2025). Most children play at being animals or engage in some form of what could be considered role-play as part of education or entertainment. Do Republicans have a vendetta against that, and if so, why? For one thing, fascism and other very controlling government ideologies disapprove of play. Controlling ideologies misinterpret play as only a distraction and diversion. There is little care for its importance for development, learning, discovery, and enrichment. Instead, fascists prioritize molding youth to conformity and obedience in utilitarian purposes in war, labor, and reproduction, with scarcely any life outside of it. Any hobby not in service to the structure is seen as a threat to it, because exploring outside of or making exceptions to the paradigm may lead to questioning it. Instead of approaching unfamiliar ideas with curiosity, thinking is fended off by means of shallow yet emotionally sensational reactions of either derision or outrage.

For another thing, sexists try to misrepresent transgender people as playing make-believe, saying that a transgender child is no different than a child pretending to be an animal one afternoon on the playground. Sexists say that gender confusion is a temporary phase that people shouldn't be encouraged in, should grow out of, or be forced out of by conversion therapy, rather than being allowed to socially transition. This is contrary to everything science knows about transgender people. Transgender people are who they say they are, allowing them to be themselves saves their lives, and obstructing that is needlessly destructive to their survival. The council of the world's largest psychological association overwhelmingly decided for a policy that supports transition as medically necessary and the healthiest choice for transgender people of all ages who desire it (APA Council of Representatives 2024). It also has a policy that recognizes conversion therapy as abusive and ineffective (APA Council of Representatives 2021).

In their urban legend and anti-furry bills and what they use them to justify, we see many values of what now calls itself the American Republican party. Republicans such as Governor Abbott show us that they oppose education for people other than the wealthy. Republicans are against the survival of youth who are different because of being queer, disabled, or other reasons. They oppose young people engaging in hobbies or playtime. If any of this situation feels undesirable or discouraging to you, the end of one of my previous articles about this bill has a section about what you can do to make positive changes to the world around you. There will be an opportunity to speak up about this bill this week. If you do, please make sure you are well-informed and careful.∎

Previously...
Here is a list in reverse chronological order of some of our previous posts on Otherkin News about TX HB 54 and other anti-furry bills in the US:

* 2025 April 19, our second article about TX HB 54: A Roundup of News Coverage of Texas’s F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act.
* 2025 March 18, our first article about TX HB 54: Texas Governor Wants Constitutional Amendment to Punish “Non-Human Behaviors” in Schools
* 2025 January 18: Mississippi and Oklahoma propose laws against students who identify as nonhuman animals
* 2024 March 24: One anti-furry bill died, the other two wait to be heard
* 2024 February 25: One of the anti-furry bills might become about religion in schools instead
* 2024 February 18: Republicans introduce a 7th anti-furry bill and work to undermine student freedoms on a wider scale
* 2024 February 9: Will Oklahoma Call Animal Control on Students?
* 2023 April 24: Proposed amendment to Montana net censorship bill would ban transgender and transspecies people
* 2023 March 14: A formerly anti-alterhuman but still anti-transgender bill will be heard Wednesday
* 2023 February 22: In US, three anti-transgender bills also oppose alterhumans; similar recent Supreme Court cases

A Roundup of News Coverage of Texas’s F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 21:55:37 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (frameacloud) on 2025 April 19 for Otherkin News, which is a volunteer run project. We welcome other people to submit articles about alterhumanity in current events. Learn more about this project and what we’re looking for.

Previously, we wrote an in-depth article about the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act, a Republican proposed constitution amendment that proposes to criminalize allowing “non-human behavior” in public schools in Texas, which has been supported by the Governor. You can read it here. If you aren’t familiar with this news story yet, please read it first so that you can understand this one.

One more thing I noticed after I wrote my article is that the wording of the two F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act bills isn’t completely identical after all: one of them has a typographical error in it. The version filed as Texas House Bill 4814 (TX HB 4814) says the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act stands for Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education, missing the final word of the initialism. The version filed as Texas House Bill 54 (TX HB 54) ends the initialism with Educational Spaces. I had assumed that its author, Republican Representative Stan Gerdes, must have filed the bill a second time because of this error, instead of correcting the introduced bill text afterward. However, in a post to his Facebook on March 14, Gerdes wrote that the bill

“now has the support of Governor Greg Abbott and Speaker Dustin Burrows, who recognize the importance of keeping distractions out of our classrooms. Speaker Burrows has reassigned our legislation as House Bill 54, a low bill number that signals its priority status in the Texas House! I’m grateful that our leadership is taking this issue seriously and ensuring that Texas schools remain places of learning, not roleplaying. I’ve appreciated the conversations I’ve had with my own Smithville ISD Superintendent on this issue—our educators should be focused on teaching, not managing classroom disruptions from kids pretending to be animals. This is common sense. Let’s get it passed.”

Given that the bill is associated with treating an urban legend as though it’s happening in real life, anything else he says about his bill is reasonable to view with doubt. Whatever the reason for the two different bill numbers, the bungled initialism is the one that most of the news articles repeat. At least one news source ends the initialism as “Education and Schools,” which doesn’t appear in either of the bill texts. I’m also skeptical of exactly what conversations Gerdes had with the Smithville ISD Superintendant, if any, for reasons that show up later in this post. I don’t recall seeing Burrows say anything about the bill, either.

Here is a round-up of some more of the media coverage about and response to the bill since I last wrote about it. This is a reference list, sorted alphabetically by surname of the author, with my own annotations about the accuracy of each article and any new information it contributed.

Bahari, Sarah (2025 March 17). Texas bill would ban ‘furry subculture’ from public schools. The Dallas Morning News. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2025/03/17/texas-bill-would-ban-furry-subculture-from-public-schools/ Archived 2025 April 8: https://web.archive.org/web/20250408185746/https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2025/03/17/texas-bill-would-ban-furry-subculture-from-public-schools/

Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC) says that this Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper for a region of Texas has a right-center bias and high credibility. This article accurately says that the litter box rumor has been debunked, and that the bill is connected with Republican efforts to use taxpayer dollars for private schools, though it doesn’t bring up that this means defunding public schools or the connection with satirizing transgender students. This article adds important new information about the story: some written statements about the bill were provided directly to the Dallas Morning News for the above article from the legislator, Rep. Stan Gerdes, and a spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, Andrew Mahaleris. Bahari reports, “Gerdes acknowledged furries soon might show up at another place: the Capitol in Austin. ‘I fully expect the subculture to show up in full furry vengeance at the committee hearing,’ he said in a statement, adding that he will not tolerate theatrics during the legislative process.” Sounds like Gerdes meant for the bill to be bait for a spectacle. The same statement also claims that “he wrote the bill in response to an incident in Smithville ISD, but he did not elaborate. Smithville is about 45 miles southeast of Austin. Neither Gerdes nor the school district immediately responded to a request for more information Monday from The Dallas Morning News.” Over a month later, there still has been no public comment from that school district to substantiate Gerdes’s claim.

Billson, Chantelle (2025 March 26). Texas GOP lawmaker introduces Furries Act after falling for the litter-boxes-in-schools hoax. PinkNews. https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/03/26/stan-gerdes-texas-furries-act/ Archived 2025 April 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20250402063947/https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/03/26/stan-gerdes-texas-furries-act/

PinkNews is an online magazine focusing on LGBTQ+ pop culture for the UK and worldwide. MBFC says it has a left bias and high credibility. That may have been true once, but sadly, PinkNews has started using generative AI in their process for writing their articles, judging by a flag that appears on the end of some of the web addresses that they linked to in their article: /?utm_source=chatgpt.com. This reveals that PinkNews used the genAI ChatGPT as though it was a search engine for discovering those links. PinkNews also gives an inaccurate history of how the litter box urban legend arose and spread, giving the wrong dates and crediting the wrong people. PinkNews says the legend started in the early 2000s and only credits its popularity to a single deleted tweet from a random sports coach in 2023. This is very far away from the facts: the legend was invented decades later than that, in 2021 and 2022, and was very visibly popularized by a number of Republican politicians and public figures. The fact-checking sites Reuters, PolitiFact, and Snopes have all covered this history as part of debunking the urban legend. If PinkNews had been even partly overseen by a human who cares about writing accurate news articles, they would have proofread their machine-generated story against at least one of those fact-checking sites.

Bollinger, Alex (2025 March 24). GOP governor tells rally that kids are using litterboxes in classrooms. The crowd agreed. LGBTQ Nation. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/gop-governor-tells-rally-that-kids-are-using-litterboxes-in-classrooms-the-crowd-agreed/ Archived 2025 March 26: https://web.archive.org/web/20250326051627/https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/gop-governor-tells-rally-that-kids-are-using-litterboxes-in-classrooms-the-crowd-agreed/

LGBTQ Nation is an online magazine in the US that specializes in queer-positive news. MBFC says it has a left bias and medium credibility because it doesn’t label its opinion articles and uses loaded words. LGBTQ Nation has had several pieces on the litter box urban legend. This article focuses on that aspect of the context of the bill, and especially on how a number of Republican politicians and public figures have promoted the urban legend during the past few years, and that its purpose was to criticize transgender students having access to public school restrooms. Otherwise, this article doesn’t add new information about the bill.

Codega, Lin (2025 March 19). A Texas conformity bill could impact tabletop roleplaying games in schools statewide. Rascal. https://www.rascal.news/texas-furries-act-tabletop-roleplaying-games-in-schools/ Archived 2025 March 20: https://web.archive.org/web/20250320225725/https://www.rascal.news/texas-furries-act-tabletop-roleplaying-games-in-schools/

Rascal is a site for news about role playing games and culture, run by three people. Rascal doesn’t have an entry in MBFC. Although it’s a small news source, this is an especially well written article that was cited in the article by Them.us. It offers some original insights to the story from a couple of lawyers, and looks at the bill from the angle of being part of another moral panic, similar to what happened in the 1980s when the Satanic Panic spread urban legends about Dungeons and Dragons being dangerous. A ban on role play is a ban on a part of the Constitutionally protected freedom of expression in public schools. One lawyer, Tess Lynch, compares cat ear headbands with the black armbands in the landmark case about students’ freedom of expression, Tinker v. Des Moines, which is the same thing that my partners Page Shepard, House of Chimeras and I said about it in our convention panel about anti-furry bills a couple of years ago. The other lawyer, Noah Downs, says that the bill text is worded in such a broad way that it could ban or criminalize school clubs for Dungeons and Dragons and many other play activities organized or approved of by teachers.

Esguerra, Vanessa (2025 March 20). A Texas bill could ban ‘furries’ from public schools—yes, really. The Mary Sue. https://www.themarysue.com/a-texas-bill-could-ban-furries-from-public-schools-yes-really/ or https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-texas-bill-could-ban-furries-from-public-schools-yes-really/ar-AA1BjM4r Archived 2025 March 23: https://web.archive.org/web/20250323101320/https://www.themarysue.com/a-texas-bill-could-ban-furries-from-public-schools-yes-really/

The Mary Sue is a feminist online magazine for women about geek culture. MBFC says it has a left bias and high credibility. It focuses on fact checking what the furry fandom is really like, as part of the magazine’s interest in fandoms, but only barely implies that the bill has an anti-LGBT context.

Fields, Alyssa (2025 March 17). Furries, Meowing in School Now a 'Radical Trend,' According to Lawmaker. The Dallas Observer. https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/texas-bill-aims-to-eliminate-furries-in-schools-21926996 Archived 2025 April 9: https://web.archive.org/web/20250409081416/https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/texas-bill-aims-to-eliminate-furries-in-schools-21926996

The Dallas Observer is a newspaper established in 1980 and appears to have a left bias, focusing on local businesses and lifestyle. It doesn’t have a listing in MBFC. The above article was cited in several other news sources because it has an interview with a member of the furry fandom, Andrew Kaiser, about what he thinks of the bill. Kaiser had been active in the fandom in Texas, but he’s one of many LGBTQIA people who move out of that state to flee conservative politics. Kaiser explained that since the fandom is known for having many LGBTQIA people in it, “any legislative discussion or any Republican talking points regarding furries are considered as a proxy attack on that [LGBTQ+] community.” Although the furry fandom has its sexual aspects, much of it is carefully kept separate from that, and animal characters and role-play are normal in children’s media and play. Kaiser pointed out that many conservative bills that are supposed to protect children from seeing anything remotely associated with sexuality are really “a disingenuous attack on people that [conservatives] don't like.”

McCormack, Caitlin (2025 March 17). Texas bill aims to ban barking, meowing and other ‘non-human behavior’ in schools to tackle furries trend. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2025/03/17/us-news/texas-bill-moves-to-ban-non-human-behavior-in-schools-to-eliminate-furry-trend/ Archived 2025 March 17: https://web.archive.org/web/20250328092550/https://nypost.com/2025/03/17/us-news/texas-bill-moves-to-ban-non-human-behavior-in-schools-to-eliminate-furry-trend/

MBFC says the New York Post is a newspaper with a right-center bias and medium credibility. I notice that the New York Post is a tabloid that has a consistently transphobic slant in its reporting, judging by the headlines in its transgender tag. This is relevant because this bill arose from anti-transgender urban legends. This is a poor article with no new scoop to offer of its own, and which fails to mention that there is no truth to the Republican politicians’ claims about furries disrupting schools. The New York Post treats the litter box urban legend as though it was fact.

Mion, Landon (2025 March 19). Texas lawmaker proposes bill targeting furries; measure seeks to ban 'non-human behavior' in schools. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-lawmaker-proposes-bill-targeting-furries-measure-seeks-ban-non-human-behavior-schools Archived 2025 April 6: https://web.archive.org/web/20250406225521/https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-lawmaker-proposes-bill-targeting-furries-measure-seeks-ban-non-human-behavior-schools

MBFC rates Fox News as a questionable source. Interestingly enough, even this article by Fox brings up that the litter box rumor is a debunked urban legend. However, Fox only says that the rumor “circulated online,” which is far less visibility than it demonstrably has had, even in this same article, where Republican politicians are promoting it as part of their platforms. Fox otherwise focuses on Gerdes and Abbott’s claims about furries being problems in schools. This allows the article to give the impression that there could be partly some substance to the claims about furries, even though they’re well-known to be baseless. It mentions that Abbott talked about “the furry issue as a motivating factor to allow private school choice vouchers,” but doesn’t explain that the vouchers would be made by sending taxpayer dollars away from public schools. Fox gave just enough of the facts to almost but not quite criticize Republican politicians or say something false.

Qureshi, Arshi (2025 March 20). TEACHER'S PET: High school students identifying as cats & using litterboxes & leashes in class target of new crackdown with $25k fine. The US Sun. https://www.the-sun.com/news/13822175/texas-wants-ban-furry-culture-school/ Archived 2025 April 11: https://web.archive.org/web/20250411123606/https://www.the-sun.com/news/13822175/texas-wants-ban-furry-culture-school/

MBFC says the US Sun is an online-only tabloid with a focus on sensational news, a right bias, and mixed factual reporting due to failed fact checks and promotion of misinformation. The Sun outright says that the litter box urban legend is true, and fails to mention that it has been consistently debunked.

Ramirez, Juan Carlos (2025 April 6) Legislature should not focus on furries during current session. North Texas Daily. https://www.ntdaily.com/opinion/legislature-should-not-focus-on-furries-during-current-session/article_91a6ee7c-1f8c-4561-a665-5753a64b78bb.html Archived 2025 April 19: https://web.archive.org/web/20250419214919/https://www.ntdaily.com/opinion/legislature-should-not-focus-on-furries-during-current-session/article_91a6ee7c-1f8c-4561-a665-5753a64b78bb.html

Established in 1916, North Texas Daily is a student paper of the University of North Texas. MBFC doesn’t have an entry about this news source. Although this is an opinion article, it does well at summarizing various news sources related to this story. The author’s stance is that the bill distracts from real issues that lawmakers need to address about schools in the state. It doesn’t get into the context of Republican opposition to public schools or LGBT rights.

Riedel, Samantha (2025 March 26). Texas Republican Introduces Bill to Address the Nonexistent Problem of Furries in Schools. Them.us. https://www.them.us/story/texas-republican-legislation-furries-in-schools Archived 2025 April 10: https://web.archive.org/web/20250410001653/https://www.them.us/story/texas-republican-legislation-furries-in-schools

Them.us is an online magazine for LGBTQIA people, which MBFC rates as having a left bias and high credibility. This article is an accurate summary of the context around the bill. It also points out that the bill is "likely to fail as its predecessors have … not least because Texas legislators have filed over 10,000 bills in the 2025-2026 session so far.”

Villarreal, Daniel (2025 March 13). GOP legislator files bill to stop ‘furries’ from using litter boxes in schools. LGBTQ Nation. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/gop-legislator-files-bill-to-stop-furries-from-using-litter-boxes-in-schools/ Archived 2025 March 14: https://web.archive.org/web/20250314064854/https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/gop-legislator-files-bill-to-stop-furries-from-using-litter-boxes-in-schools/

Another article from this online magazine. This is a good summary, focusing on the spread of the litter box urban legend among Republican politicians. In regard to the Smithville school district that Gerdes had said had a furry incident, this article notes that the district “serves only 1,885 students … [and no] known news reports covered the alleged incident.”

Villegas, Patti (2025 March 18). Texas Lawmaker Unleashes F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act: No More Barking In Classrooms. The Dallas Express. https://dallasexpress.com/education/texas-bill-would-ban-furry-behavior-in-schools/ Archived 2025 April 19: https://web.archive.org/web/20250419215048/https://dallasexpress.com/education/texas-bill-would-ban-furry-behavior-in-schools/

MBFC says the Dallas Express was founded in 2021 and has a right wing bias and medium credibility. This is a poor article because it fails to mention that the litter box rumor has been consistently debunked by fact-checkers as an urban legend, which is a crucial part of this news story. It makes it sound like the politicians are responding in a reasonable way to a bizarre youth fad. The Dallas Express selectively quotes the furry who was interviewed in the Dallas Observer to make it sound like he’s normalizing these behaviors in schools, instead of any of the parts where he said that it’s not happening like that.

Generally, what we see in this round-up of news articles is that right-wing news sources vary in what degree that they will admit that the Republicans who support the bill are basing it on a debunked urban legend. Meanwhile, left-wing news sources vary in how much they get into the context of the bill to explain what Republicans are getting at. If any of these articles make you feel concerned or unsafe, please read my previous article about the bill and focus on the part about things that you can do, such as writing to your elected representative, or building solidarity with your local community.∎

comments

Otherkin News - Rules version 1.1

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 07:46:02 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

This post tells about the Otherkin News project, the code of conduct for participating in it, and the style guide for submitting news articles to it.

I. About this blog

Otherkin News is a collaborative, volunteer-run blog for sharing news for otherkin, therianthropes, fictionfolk, plural systems, and all sorts of alterhumans. We’ll talk about current events in our communities, and discuss newspaper articles that are about us. You can post links to news articles you've found that talk about otherkin, or new fictionkin essays that you or others have publicly posted. You can advertise here about your surveys of therianthropes, and your calls for submissions to alterhuman essay anthologies. You can share news that you've found that aren't about alterhumans but that you think are relevant to the interests and experiences of many of us. Everyone is welcome to subscribe and to submit articles to this blog.
Otherkin News is a community blog hosted on Dreamwidth, a social blogging platform. That means this blog isn’t a place where only one user posts, it’s a place where many users can post, similar to a web forum. Certain members of the community have a moderator role. Here is the official FAQ about Dreamwidth communities.
You don’t need to have an account on Dreamwidth to be notified of updates to this community. If you have an RSS feed reader, such as Feedly, you can paste this link into it to subscribe to our RSS feed: https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/data/rss Or, if you use Mastodon, you can subscribe to this automated feed of it. A community moderator also manually links to the posts on Tumblr and on their personal Bluesky, if you use either of those social media platforms. Although we make these options available, we recommend that you read the posts on Dreamwidth itself, so that you don’t miss out on updates to individual posts and the discussions in the comments.
If you choose to use a Dreamwidth account to comment or post to this community, and you’re new to using this platform, then here are some resources that you can explore about it to make your experience better:
1. Carmentalis’s guide to Dreamwidth for Tumblr users is a brief overview of what this platform can do
2. SASO Referees’s guide on how to use Dreamwidth, which focuses on how to join a community and post to it
3. You can install Solarbird’s custom theme that makes DreamWidth work well on mobile devices.
4. Dreamwidth’s official FAQ is very thorough about all of its features.

II. Definitions

Alterhuman. As defined by the person who coined it in 2014, Lio of the Crossroads System, alterhuman is “a category of personal identity which encompasses identification that is alternative to the common societal idea of humanity” (Lio 2014). This for people who identify as nonhuman as well as people who identify as human in some ways, or wholly human in an unusual way (Lio 2023 May; Alt+H 2017; Sivaan 2025). For brevity, this blog uses this as a very broad umbrella term for types such as otherkin, therianthropes, fictionfolk, plural systems, and more. Some of these are defined below. This is the purpose of the word and its intention to help us unite in celebration of what we have in common as well as what makes us different (Lio 2023 February). The reason why this blog doesn’t use this word in its title is because this project was started on Livejournal in 2009, years before the word had been coined, and before there was any umbrella term for all of these.
Fictionfolk is an umbrella term for real people who feel strong connections to fiction or a personal origin in fiction (Poppy 2023). We use it to include types such as fictionkin, fictives, fictional introjects, soulbonds, and more. Fictionkin identify as characters or species from fiction, and their community started in the early 2000s (House of Chimeras 2021 June). Fictional introjects are documented in dissociative systems as far back as 1985 (Kluft 1985 p. 185).
Otherkin and therianthropes are people who say that they are animals or other nonhuman beings. Both of these communities started separately from one another: otherkin began in a mailing list in 1990 (Arethinn 2021), and therianthropes began in Usenet in 1993 (House of Chimeras 2021 November). Individuals vary in whether they explain this in terms that are spiritual or psychological, but these are not religions (Proctor 2019, pp. 94-95). They also aren’t mental illnesses and don’t correlate with mental illnesses (Clegg 2019). Readers new to this topic can start with this short essay, A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes (Scribner 2024).
Plurality, also called multiplicity, is an umbrella term for any people who experience themselves as more than one self in one body all the time. It includes Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Plurality isn’t a synonym for DID, it includes experiences that are disordered and non-disordered, with origins that can be psychological, spiritual, cultural, natural, or mixed (Yarbrough 2018; Manchester 2021). It includes daemians, tulpamancers, walk-ins, fugue states, certain cultural traditions of spirit possession, and more.

II. Code of conduct

This section applies to posts as well as comments.

Abide by the Terms of Service of the host for this blog, Dreamwidth. Here are a few relevant points from that. Users of this site must be at least thirteen years old; TOS preamble. Don’t post material here that is illegal in the USA; TOS XI(8), XVII. Don’t post content that is invasive to the privacy of others; TOS XI(1).
We tolerate harmless differences, and we cannot tolerate intolerance. We don’t allow hatred toward people for their ethnicity, race, ancestry, nationality, religion, spirituality, weight, disability, mental illness, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, type of plurality, type of alterhumanity, or non-alterhumanity.
Disagreements.
1. We don't have to agree with one another about everything. We each have our own views about politics, spirituality, queerness, alterhumanity, and more. We can talk together about them and we can agree to disagree. Do not expect others to think the same as you or to change for you. Getting along with one another while holding different opinions is essential for keeping our communities healthy places to be.
2. Thoughtful debates and disagreements are all right in the comment threads, but quarrels and flamewars are not. Don’t insult one another here. Act with civility.
3. Posts to this community do not necessarily reflect the views of its moderators.
4. The moderators prefer to allow people here regardless of whether they personally agree with them to keep this a welcoming space for our diverse communities.
5. Keeping this a welcoming space is also why the moderators reserve the right to ban accounts from posting and/or commenting at their discretion.
News reporting is a quest for truth and accuracy. Don’t uncritically spread urban legends, misinformation, conspiracy theories, alternative histories, or extraordinary claims that contradict consensus reality.
The alterhuman communities have no shared cosmology, spirituality, or religion. Each of us are free to have our own or lack thereof. Others in this community are not obliged to share yours. If you personally hold beliefs that differ from consensus reality, others in this community are not obliged to do so as well. Treat one another with respect even if you do not share or disagree with their beliefs.
The alterhuman communities have no leaders. We are all equals in the community. Even if your alterhumanity involves a noble title in your system’s inner world, an alpha role in your pack, a spiritually divine status from your past life, villainous exomemories from your source in canon, or years of experience as what some internet forums would deem a greymuzzle, others in this community are not obliged to treat you as anything more or less than an equal.
Do not plagiarize. One violation could result in your account being banned from posting and commenting. Familiarize yourself with Purdue OWL’s guide to avoiding plagiarism.
Do not knowingly post images or texts that were created with the use of generative artificial intelligence (genAI). One violation could result in your account being banned from posting and commenting. You can write articles that report on something created with genAI, if that’s relevant, in which case, please start your article with a content warning about genAI.
Do not advocate for what a court of law would consider to be sexual contact in real life with animals, children, or non-consenting adults. We will ban people who openly profess to advocate for or involve themselves in such abuses, even if they did not discuss it in this group.
Members may have their posting access removed if they promote what the moderators consider to be scams or abusive groups, that is to say, cults. We recommend that our readers learn how to avoid these by reading a useful document by The Dragonheart Collective, “Safety in Alterhuman Spaces,” not only to keep themselves safe, but to familiarize themselves with what our moderators see as red flags of abusive groups.
To make this blog accessible for people with disabilities who use screen readers, please give image descriptions and use conventional spelling for your messages.

III. Style guide for writing news posts to this blog

This section is long because writing about current events needs to be handled with responsibility. Even this small and obscure blog about small and obscure communities is nonetheless public on the internet, and therefore has the potential to be seen by anyone in the world. How you write in public about real people and events can have effects on the reputation and privacy of individuals, readers’ life decisions, how outsiders see our communities, and how we later see our own history.

In Dreamwidth’s official FAQ, here are instructions for how to post to a community blog. If you prefer visual instructions with screenshots, user SportsAnime has those.
If you found some news that you want to post about here, you can write your own news article about it here. You don’t have to write a whole essay, though. Another option is to make simply a notification of news, a minimal post with just the links to the news, with their titles, authors, and dates.
When you submit your article to be posted to this blog, at first it will be shown only to the community moderators for them to approve or reject it. We usually approve posts, and reject them only if they’re totally inappropriate for this project, the guidelines for which are described below. If you’re still waiting for that decision after three days, that means the moderators haven’t checked Dreamwidth and seen the notification for it yet. In that case, you can nudge a moderator to let them know that it’s waiting by sending them an email.
Common courtesy. Everyone deserves this, even people who you personally dislike, and even people who have been convicted of crimes.
1. Be compassionate about your writing and be careful of how it might have a harmful effect on its readers and the people that it’s about.
2. Don’t use this blog as a place to make allegations against someone based on weak “evidence” such as screenshots, word of mouth, or rumors.
3. Respect the privacy of private individuals.
4. Don’t dox people.
5. Don’t write offensive and intentionally untrue things about specific people (defamation).
6. If you write about someone who has changed their name, refer to them by their current name, and don’t mention any of their old names. When writing about people who use a certain name within the alterhuman communities, use only that name without revealing their wallet name. Use their current preferred pronouns and refer to their gender in the way that they currently describe it without indicating that this is in question.
Be especially careful with news about minors. Respect their safety and their right to be forgotten.
1. Don’t write anything about minors that could contribute to them being doxxed, harassed, or abused, or which is likely to continue to cause them trouble years later in their adulthood.
2. If minors have been in the news, then you can record that those newspapers have reported on them.
3. If you must write about a minor who is only known through social media or privately, because that is unavoidably a part of otherwise notable current events, please do so with taste and without giving their full name, location, or other information that would identify them too much.
Current events. Even if something happened a year ago, that's current enough. We'd rather see them written than not at all. That's realistic for this project done in spare time by volunteers. We're not staffed by journalists on the clock to turn a scoop into a published article on the same day.
Content warnings. As much as possible, please try to keep your writing tasteful to a degree that a media censor would consider to be, at most, rated PG-13 or rated T for Teen. If an article needs to be about topics that should only be seen by adults, or which would be very disturbing to the average person, or inappropriate for the average person to view at work or school, then please preface it with a specific content warning, and hide it behind a cut tag. We encourage the use of content warnings here because it’s respectful netiquette for welcoming a wide range of readers on the internet. In particular, it’s because a significant part of the intended audience of this blog are plural systems, who are often survivors of trauma.
Emotional tone.
1. A neutral tone is good, but you don’t need to adhere to it strictly. This isn’t Wikipedia. We consider some concepts to be neutral which some places see as leftist political stances, because these are simply necessary for everyone to live. For example, we say Nazis are bad, transgender women are real women, and disabled people have lives worth living.
2. If you want to talk more about your personal feelings about current events, clearly mark your writings as an opinion article.
3. Sensationalism is irresponsible journalism. No sensationalism about current events, especially with the explicit or implicit effect of driving readers to give up hope, passively accept media misinformation, turn to in-fighting, or physically injure themselves or others.
4. The original post itself should basically perform the role of a news article, or a notification of news, not the opening of a debate (those belong on a web forum) or a vent post (those belong on a personal blog). If you want to discuss your emotions about a piece of news, you can do that in the comments to the blog post rather than in the blog post itself. You can disagree and debate in the comments.
Check your facts. If you’re writing about something that was in the mainstream news or that was circulating on social media, look it up on…
1. fact checking sites such as Snopes.com and Reuters Fact Check, which will tell you if the story is a half-truth or an urban legend
2. MediaBiasFactCheck.com, which will tell you the reputation of the media source in general, and whether it tends to be factually accurate. (Although MBFC is itself reliable most of the time, be forewarned that it occasionally has its own bias in regard to certain topics, particularly LGBT rights and certain religious groups.)
If in your journalism you discover a crime or other problems of similar gravity, please handle that information responsibly. Document the evidence thoroughly in your own private files. Consider your options to consult a lawyer and take it to the authorities, and whether making your findings public on the internet may be inappropriate to do with your information. A blog isn’t a courtroom and doesn’t have the power to act as judge and jury to determine the guilt of the accused.
Title your article in a way that summarizes it without misrepresenting it.
Cite your sources.
1. Acceptable: at least link to each web page that your information came from.
2. Good: at the end of your article, give all your sources as a bibliography or reference list in APA or another style of your choice.
3. Best: for each source citation, add a link to its archive in the Wayback Machine, because we must assume that all links will die someday. Annotate your bibliography by writing a couple of sentences about each source. Note which piece of your information came from that source. Remark on how reliable that source appears to be or whether you noticed any errors in it. Mention that source’s reputation according to MediaBiasFactCheck.com.

IV. Subject matter

Otherkin News is about all sorts of alterhumans and topics of interest to them. Here are some examples of topics that you are welcome to write blog posts about for Otherkin News. This section gives a lot of examples because we hope to inspire more people to write for this project and for you to understand what a wide variety of topics we welcome.

News which came from outside of the alterhuman communities but is relevant to them
1. Most importantly, record any coverage in news, magazines, radio, documentaries, books, podcasts, academic articles, or other media about any sorts of alterhumans (publicity)
2. News about animals and mythological beings, such as performance art pieces, research about mythology, legalities, scientific discoveries, and newly published history
3. News about prosthetic limbs, virtual reality, and body modifications of sorts that would be relevant for alterhumans
4. News about phantom limbs, dissociation, reincarnation, and other experiences that are often relevant to those of alterhumans
5. News about changes to social media sites and web hosts that could have an impact on alterhumans who use these to share their creations and socialize with one another
Current events within the alterhuman communities.
1. Results of surveys of the alterhuman communities
2. Round-ups of links to the newest essays, web-sites, forums, mailing lists, and other creations in alterhuman communities
3. Obituaries for members of the alterhuman community who recently died
4. Closures or migrations of alterhuman forums, mailing lists, or websites
5. Describe what happened at a recent convention, gather, meet-up, or other community event, with a focus on the details that will be useful to historians later, without doxxing anyone. For example, date, location, staff, the subject matter of presentations, and who presented them
6. The history of how a new controversial discourse topic or flamewar recently emerged and expanded beyond one forum or site for alterhumans
7. Fact checks for urban legends and other misinformation about alterhumans, whether this is circulating inside or outside of our communities
8. If something happened in the communities a few years ago, but its story hasn’t been told yet, then that’s recent enough to write about in here. We would rather see someone write about an otherkin gather that happened two years ago than have no story about it at all. Ideally, make sure that it’s not being misremembered by collecting sources to cite, interviewing some people who were there for those events, or asking them to proofread your post to see if it’s how they remember it
Advertisements of certain kinds are acceptable here, if they are posted only once, if they are clearly marked as advertisements rather than news, and if they are for something that was created entirely without the use of generative AI.
1. Upcoming events, such as conventions, gathers, and meet-ups for alterhumans. However, don’t ask people to use the comments to publicly reveal where they live
2. Casting calls for documentary videos
3. Surveys for alterhumans to take
4. Make a call for submissions to an anthology, game jam, or other collaborative project about alterhumanity
5. Fundraisers to support a project about alterhumans or a cause relevant to alterhumans
6. Your own finished projects about alterhumans

V. Subject matter that isn’t suitable for posting to this blog.

Most news that is strictly about the furry fandom would usually be better placed elsewhere, because there are several blogs with a better specialty in that, such as Dogpatch Press.
Advertisements that are repetitive, scammy, or not particularly on topic may be handled as spam. This may result in your account no longer being allowed to post here.
Fundraisers for individual alterhumans– such as medical GoFundMes– could overwhelm this blog if we allowed them, if our timelines on Mastodon are any indication. We encourage you to create another Dreamwidth community to share those instead. However, at the end of any news post that you write here, it’s all right to give a link for readers to tip you, for example, at your Ko-fi.
Posts that resemble a personal vent or a diary entry belong on one’s personal blog instead.
Posts that themselves look as though they came from a flamewar belong on a discussion or debate forum instead.
Please don’t make posts here to introduce yourselves or make casual conversation. These also belong in a discussion forum instead.

VI. Change log.

Version 1. 2025 April 19. Posted these rules for the first time.
Version 1.1. Some cleanup later that day.

References

Alt+H (September 21, 2017). What does ‘alterhuman’ mean? Alt+H (blog). https://web.archive.org/web/20230908220250/https://blog.alt-h.net/post/165592493965/what-does-alterhuman-mean

Arethinn (September 6, 2021). “A brief(ish) history of the word ‘otherkind’.” Mythsong. https://www.mythsong.net/history/wordhist.html

Carmenta (2015 November 1). Dreamwidth. Carmentalis (blog). https://carmentalis.tumblr.com/post/132342130218/dreamwidth

Clegg, H., Collings, R., & Roxburgh, E. C. (2019). “Therianthropy: Wellbeing, Schizotypy, and Autism in Individuals Who Self-Identify as Non-Human.” Society & Animals, 27(4), pp. 403-426. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341540

The Dragonheart Collective (2023 October 18). Safety in Alterhuman Spaces. https://dragonsroost.neocities.org/essay/edu/SafetyInAlterhumanSpaces.pdf

Dreamwidth (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Dreamwidth. https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faq

House of Chimeras (June 21, 2021 a). A Timeline of the Fictionkin Community, Version 1.0. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4vGsWkiGPjYtXvTe4PyCcZsPba1kb_p/view?usp=sharing

House of Chimeras (19 November 2021 b). A Timeline of the Therianthrope Community, Version 1.1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jDmjl78hQ2BiQtzQMTV3yRQkrIgB9eUZ/view?usp=sharing

Kluft, Richard P. (1985). Childhood Antecedents of Multiple Personality. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Press, page 185.

Lio (2014 September 26). This will probably be my last post on semantics… Phasmovore (blog). https://phasmovore.tumblr.com/post/98482696958/this-will-probably-be-my-last-post-on-semantics

Lio (2023 February 19) Just for the record… XRDS (blog). https://x-rds.tumblr.com/post/709694807213211648/problemaddtic-thelunastusco-problemaddtic

Lio (2023 May 27). Anonymous asked… XRDS (blog). https://x-rds.tumblr.com/post/712949341799727104/i-dont-wanna-bother-you-and-i-guess-this-is-a

Manchester Metropolitan University (2021 February 9). Understanding Multiplicity. https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2021-02/Understanding%20multiplicity.pdf

Poppy (January 24, 2023). “Quick guide to fictionfolk terminology.” Aestherians. https://aestherians.tumblr.com/post/707370073217695744/

Proctor, Devin (2019 May). On Being Non-Human: Otherkin Identification and Virtual Space. The George Washington University. https://search.proquest.com/openview/e156c24bf65c4efb0918a8db37433cce/

Purdue Online Writing Lab (n.d.). Avoiding Plagiarism. Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/avoiding_plagiarism/index.html

SASO Referees (2015 May 23). Guide: How to use Dreamwidth. Sports Anime Shipping Olympics 2017 (community blog). https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/3573.html

Scribner, Orion (May 25, 2024). A simple introduction to otherkin and therianthropes: Version 2.4.8. https://frameacloud.itch.io/simple-intro-otherkin-therian

Sivaan of Candlekeep (2025 February 18) Alterhuman is an umbrella term, not a synonym! LionDrakes (blog). https://liondrakes.tumblr.com/post/775848023623385088/alterhuman-is-an-umbrella-term-not-a-synonym

Solarbird (2018 April 28). Coexistence Alpha: a responsive mobile and desktop overlay for Dreamwidth. Life in the Convergence Zone (blog). https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/1533020.html

Yarbrough, E., & American Psychiatric Association Publishing. (2018). Transgender mental health. American Psychiatric Association Publishing.

comments

Fictionfolk Webring

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 01:59:32 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Join the Fictionfolk Webring

Are you fictionfolk? Do you have a personal website? We'd love to have you join our webring!

We've have yet to see anyone make fictionfolk webring, so we're filling the gap ourselves. Learn more on our website. We have more info there on what we're doing, how to join and even links to the resources we used to build everything.

What is a webring?

It's basically a collection of websites, that you can cycle through and view via a widget all the sites put up. This means, that by using our webring, you can easily browse through a bunch cool websites made by fictionfolk without having to scour the internet! Neat!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us.

comments

Texas Governor Wants Constitutional Amendment to Punish “Non-Human Behaviors” in Schools

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:57:57 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

Summary: In the US, Republicans have introduced the third and fourth bills this year that would ban students from being furries in public schools, with a pair of identical texts introduced as Texas House Bill 54 and HB 4814. Called the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act, these bills propose to amend the Texas Constitution to prohibit students from displaying “non-human behaviors” at school, to call schools that allow it abusive, and to punish the schools with expensive fines. Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke approvingly of the bill and claimed it was in response to schools supposedly letting students behave as animals and use litter boxes. That was a debunked urban legend that Republicans invented in 2021. The purpose of the urban legend and the bills is to satirize transgender students who ask to use the right restrooms for their genders, and to justify defunding public schools in favor of private schools. Republicans oppose education for people other than the wealthy, and oppose allowing LGBTQIA people to exist. Below, find out more about what these bills mean and what you can do about them.

What the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act bill says

On March 14, Republican Representative Stan Gerdes introduced Texas House Bill 54. He also filed an identical copy of it under another number, Texas House Bill 4814, on March 13.

This is the government web page about the bill:
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB54

From that site, here is where you read the bill text:
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/pdf/HB00054I.pdf

The bill text itself says it is “entitled an act relating to the display of and allowance for non-human behaviors in Texas schools … This bill may be referred to as the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces or F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act,” Section 1, found on page 1 of the bill.

The bill proposes several amendments to the Texas Constitution. First, it would amend the 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,” section 2(a)(10), found on page 3. Exempt days mean no more than five holidays or school events, section 2(a)(5), found on page 4. It makes exceptions for animal costumes as sports mascots and school plays, for some examples.

The bill gives specific examples of what its author considers to be nonhuman behavior that it would prohibit students from doing at schools. Some that it specifies are wearing tails, leashes, collars, ears, meowing or making other animal sounds, or using litter boxes, in section 2(a)(6), found on pages 5 through 6.

The Texas bill would furthermore amend the Family Code to redefine abuse to specify that it includes “an education setting, allowing or encouraging the child to develop a dependance on or a belief that non-human behaviors are societally acceptable,” section 5(1)(A), found on page 7.

To punish violations, the bill would impose “a fine against the district not to exceed $10,000 for a first violation or $25,000 for any subsequent violations,” section 6(f), found on page 10.

The bill's basis on an urban legend and how that differs from any real-life students or their hobbies

The part about litter boxes in the Texas bill is a reference to an urban legend that Republicans began circulating in late 2021 and 2022. The legend alleges that certain public schools are letting students that the legend calls “furries” use litter boxes because they identify as animals. The fact-checking sites Reuters, PolitiFact, and Snopes have all debunked it: all the schools deny that any of their students use litter boxes and that they haven’t had any other disruptive animal-like behavior or any awareness of students being furries. The urban legend is meant to satirize public schools that allow transgender students to use the restrooms for their genders (Reuters, 2022; Czopek, 2022; Palma, 2023). Journalists discovered that the only school district in the nation that stocked cat litter was that of Columbine High School, not for a purpose as the urban legend described, but “as part of ‘go buckets’ that contain emergency supplies in case students are locked in a classroom during a shooting” (Kingkade et al, 2022), along with other first aid and cleanup supplies, as an option if a lockdown cuts off access to restrooms for too many hours (Garcia, 2017). Before the anti-furry bills started, community historian House of Chimeras anticipated that the urban legend could later become important, so they had researched it in depth and presented a lecture about it at a convention, which is recommended viewing if you want to learn more about it: “Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic.”

In the past few years in real life, there has been a youth fad for doing athletic stunts on all fours (quadrobics), crafting and wearing animal masks and tails from craft store supplies, and making animal sounds. People show off this hobby online in places such as on the video clip sharing social media app TikTok, and it has spread internationally past language barriers. Some quadrobists identify as animals and/or call themselves therianthropes, but those aren’t the same thing. Quadrobics is a hobby about crafts and sports that anyone nimble enough can engage in, whereas therianthropy is an intrinsic identification as an animal. Therianthropes are real people who identify as animals, so that does exist, and they have had a community since about 1993, but the urban legend wasn't based on them. Quadrobics is popular with young therianthropes, but older therianthropes typically have never engaged in any aspect of quadrobics and are firm that they don’t need to wear tails or ears to have an intrinsically animal inner self.

The furry fandom is for people who like making art and stories about talking animals. Some therianthropes are also involved in the furry fandom, but surveys of the furry fandom show that most people who call themselves furries don’t identify as animals (Plante et al, 2016, pp. 113-114).

Quadrobists, therianthropy, and the furry fandom aren’t about using litter boxes. The urban legend isn’t genuinely based on quadrobists, therianthropes, or furries. It wasn't any of their faults, and though it may hurt them, they aren’t its target. The urban legend's target is to satirize transgender people and to justify defunding public schools.

What the Governor of Texas said about the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act

Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke in public this week as though this urban legend was true and was the reason for this proposed legislation. The Houston Chronicle reports that this is part of the Governor’s

“criticism of public schools in recent weeks as he pitches a program allowing public money to be spent on private education, which the governor has made his signature policy push this session. The governor has cast private school vouchers as an option for parents turned off by what he called ‘the pervasive woke leftist agenda that's being forced on our kids in our public schools.’”

One example of what Abbott meant by this were schools that allow transgender students to participate in sports or be called by their preferred names and pronouns. He has called for schools to be investigated for allowing that. Together with furries, the Governor said this was “why parents should be able to access state funds to send their children to private schools” by means of a statewide private school voucher program (Wermund, 2025). He admits that his voucher program would result in less money for public schools by draining it away from them (Wermund and McKinley, 2025). That would also make it harder for disabled children to access education at all (RA Staff, Mar. 6, 2025). In the US, most children go to public schools, which the government provides to all families for free, whereas private schools are exclusive to families who can afford them, are usually religious, and offer fewer legal protections for their students. We at Otherkin News have previously written in more depth about why Republicans are using the urban legend and these bills to oppose public schools, which you can read here: Scribner and Sol, Feb. 18, 2024.

In regard to what the Governor said about this bill, independent furry news blogger Patch O’Furr of Dogpatch Press remarked that this

“isn't about furries, that's a pretext they [Republicans] invented out of thin air in order to transfer public resources into private pockets. This impoverishes education for all who use public schooling. In case you missed it, private schooling is exclusive”

and Republicans are “merging panic about trans athletes and the furry-litterbox hoax as pretextual propaganda for the tip of this spear” (O’Furr, March 15, 2025; O’Furr, March 14, 2025). Although these urban legends and bills could have consequences for student hobbies, the main purpose is to fabricate a moral panic that will excite the Republican voter base (O’Furr, March 13, 2025). Even if the bill did pass into law and had consequences for students, the students or schools could sue and point to their Constitutional right to freedom of expression, to the degree that they don’t conflict with the school’s own policies to maintain a peaceful learning environment. That Constitutional right isn’t protected for students in private schools.

Who wrote the bill, and what is its context with that author’s other motivations?

Republican Representative Stan Gerdes is the sole sponsor of the Texas bills. When Republicans propose bills that sound like jokes, pay attention to what serious issue they’re trying to distract from or satirize. On a third-party legislation tracker, LegiScan, you can see a list of all other bills that Rep. Gerdes sponsors. In some of the many other bills that he sponsors, Gerdes wants to…

make it so that food stamps will cover fewer types of foods and drinks (HB 5243), which is presented as being about promoting healthier food choices in a paternalistic way, and is a step toward limiting or getting rid of food stamps altogether, which are crucial for keeping low-income families from starvation

force public school rooms to prominently display a religious text, the Ten Commandments (HB 1009), even though these are government facilities and so aren’t supposed to promote a religion
require a Nativity scene to be displayed on state capitol grounds during December (HB 1497), which is also about making government facilities promote Christianity in particular

forbid governmental entities from having anti-discrimination training, specifically about “transgender ideology,” “anti-racism,” and a long list of “woke” buzzwords (HB 4552)

increase minimum prison time to ten years as punishment for intoxication manslaughter, mainly meaning when a drunk driver accidentally kills someone (HB 2017), which is less effective for preventing tragic accidents than it is for building a larger population of prison laborers, in other words, slavery for profit

to make the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade an official state holiday in memory of aborted fetuses (HB 911), which would express that the government has a stance against abortion, and by extension, against contraception and women’s health care in general

These are only a few of Gerdes’s other bills. Some of them could also be meant as satirical bills that he’s using to make a point rather than expecting them to pass. The theme that emerges is not only deadly hatred toward all people who aren’t just the same as himself, but also his hatred of one of America’s central values, the separation of church and state, and expressing a desire to instead impose his own form of Christianity as the state religion, which is a form of tyranny that the founders had hoped to prevent.

Other anti-furry bills

Gerdes’s anti-furry bills are the third and fourth such in the US this year. There is also the Oklahoma House Bill 1327, which is an identical reused text from last year by sole sponsor Republican Representative Justin Humphrey. He’s known for writing satirical bills to distract from serious ones or poke fun at serious issues. He sometimes edits them later to make them more serious and stand a chance of passing into law. This bill proposes to have children who say they’re animals picked up from school by animal control, though he says he would consider changing that to a mental institution. Last year, he had said that this was his “crazy bill” which he was using to make “a sarcastic point.” We’re meant to gather that his point is about what he thinks of transgender people, which he has spoken against. He’s also against the American public school system and wants it replaced with private schools (Jones, 2024; Scribner and Sol, 2024 February 9). Humphrey’s bill this year is still at 25% progression and had its second reading referred to Rules on February 4; last year’s version of it died. You can learn much more about the text and context of this bill by reading the deep dive that we bloggers did about last year’s version of it (Scribner and Sol, 2024 February 9).

Another anti-furry bill died in committee on February 4, 2025. That was Mississippi House Bill 1060, which would “require school personnel to notify parents of students who request [sic] to be referred to as different gender or nonhuman.” It had been sponsored by eleven Republican Representatives. The bill text itself only talked about transgender students, apparently having had the other parts deleted before it was introduced. You can learn more in our previous article about it (Scribner, 2025 January 18).

After the litter box urban legend in late 2021 and 2022, Republicans began introducing anti-furry bills in 2023 with North Dakota House Bill 1522, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943, Indiana Statehouse Bill 380, and a proposed amendment to Montana Senate Bill 544. 2024 had Oklahoma House Bill 3084, Mississippi House Bill 176, and Missouri House Bill 2678. During the past three years, Republicans have introduced a total of eleven anti-furry bills so far. No anti-furry bills have yet passed into law as such. Fellow volunteers and I have been reporting on these in the Otherkin News blog all along, which you can read in the tag for that purpose.

What can you do about anti-furry bills?

In regard to the three anti-furry bills that are active, what can you do about them? Keep in mind that these bills are a small part of Republican efforts to get rid of public schools and to get rid of transgender people. Do what you can to protect public schools and transgender youth.

If you live in either of the states in question, Texas and Oklahoma, then you can contact your elected representatives to explain why you think these bills are bad. Part of your job as a voter is to tell your reps what you think. Their job is to represent you, that is, to listen to you and make your opinion part of their decisions.

You can find out who your reps are with a free tool called BallotReady.org. First, put in your street address where you’re registered to vote and click “get started.” You don’t need to give it your email. Next, click “meet your representatives.” Then click “state.” Under someone’s name, it will say that they’re with the state House of Representatives, or the Senate. Then click “contact” to see how to reach them by phone or email. If this tool doesn’t have that information for that person, or you want to fax them instead, click “learn more” to see that person’s website. When you contact your rep, briefly tell them your name, county, zip code, the number of the bill, and then your opinion against it.

If you live in those states or anywhere else in the US, you can also do these things:

If you or your friends or family members are teens, read any of these three books about legal rights in public schools. What are My Rights? Q&A about Teens and the Law by Judge Tom Jacobs; Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution by Kaelyn Rich; and Know Your Rights and Claim Them: A Guide for Youth, by Amnesty International. Get copies of them into your libraries.

If you’re an adult, attend school board meetings, which are open to the public. Listen and voice your questions and concerns. Republicans have been making bad things happen by doing that, even at schools where they don’t have any children.

Donate to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which protects freedom of expression in public schools in the US and challenges laws that hurt LGBTQIA families.

Write letters of thanks and appreciation to people who are doing good things in school boards and legislation. Encourage them to keep up the good work and that you value what they’re doing for everyone.

For keeping up with news about legislation that could have an impact on transgender people in the US, follow the award-winning blog for that purpose by independent journalist Erin Reed.

No matter where in the world you live, you can do these things:

Share this article with your friends who live in Texas so that they're informed about this issue and their power to contact their representatives. (This isn't a self-promotion thing, my blog is obscure and I'm fine with that, what's important is helping people get accurate information about what's happening and what they can do.)

If a friend repeats the litter box urban legend, even though you already know it’s not true, suggest in a more gentle way, “I’ve heard that around too, I wonder where it came from and which parts of it are right. Let’s look it up on Snopes together to find out.” People get stubborn if you bluntly tell them they’re wrong, but exploring something you’re both curious about is something that you can enjoy together.

Sharpen your own media literacy so you don’t fall for urban legends either. Explore news stories through both of those fact checking sites. Don’t be afraid to research claims that you hear about on social media or from the people around you.

America's eleventh anti-furry bill, TX HB 54, a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution which calls itself the F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act, has support from the Governor, highlighting his views on many other issues and those of other Republican legislators. Republican politicians are so interested in putting their time and effort into fabricate crude satire about furries-- without caring that it has been debunked-- because these are part of their tools and plans to eradicate transgender people, defund public schools, make education less accessible to low-income families and disabled youth, and destroy the separation of church and state. It's not useful to try to decide which group of people is harmed the worst by some form of oppression or discrimination, because even mere jokes about interest groups and hobbies can be tools against many other marginalized peoples. Nobody did anything to deserve this. Let the knowledge of this context motivate you toward solidarity with one another and taking real actions-- phone calls to your representatives and more-- to save the schools and other governmental institutions that many of us in our society depend upon.

About the author: This blog post was written by Orion Scribner (they/them), who has been a community historian and archivist for more than ten years.

Cite this blog post:

APA

Scribner, O. (2025, March 18). Texas Governor Wants Constitutional Amendment to Punish “Non-Human Behaviors” in Schools. Otherkin News. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/96509.html

Chicago

Scribner, Orion. "Texas Governor Wants Constitutional Amendment to Punish 'Non-Human Behaviors' in Schools." Otherkin News (blog). March 18, 2025. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/96509.html

MLA

Scribner, Orion. "Texas Governor Wants Constitutional Amendment to Punish 'Non-Human Behaviors' in Schools." Otherkin News, 18 Mar. 2025. https://otherkinnews.dreamwidth.org/96509.html

comments

Nonhuman Notions: an email newsletter for nonhumans

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:35:36 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Hello, everyone! We're Nonhuman Notions,

a free, community-run, email newsletter for a wide variety of nonhuman identities including therians, otherkin, fictionfolk, and more. Our goal is to support and share art, writing, and other projects from the nonhuman community.

Nonhuman Notions accepts visual art, poetry, photography, and essays documenting, describing, and encapsulating what it means to be and live as nonhuman. While the focus of the newsletter is on nonhumans, we strive to support and share surveys, zines, community events, and other news that have to do with the AHPI community. The newsletter currently consists of three sections: art and photography, writing, and the community howl.

Submissions will be opening soon!

Interested in learning more?

Follow us on social media.

Subscribe or sign up for updates!

comments

Mississippi and Oklahoma propose laws against students who identify as nonhuman animals

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 03:40:14 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

For the third year running, Republicans in the US have once again continued to write "anti-furry bills." On January 17, Republicans introduced Mississippi House Bill 1060 (MS HB 1060), which you can see for yourself on the state government's site, though you may need to enable Javascript if your web browser doesn't display it properly: https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2025/pdf/history/HB/HB1060.xml Currently, this is the bill's official description, as written by its sponsors:

"Gender dysphoria; require school personnel to notify parents of student who request to be referred to as different gender or nonhuman."

Emphasis added. Furthermore, the sponsors wrote it with this summary:

"An Act To Require School Administrators, Teachers, Counselors Or Other Personnel Of The School To Provide Written Notification To The Parent Or Legal Guardian Of Any Student Identifying At School As A Gender Or Pronoun That Does Not Align With The Child's Sex On Their Birth Certificate, Sex Assigned At Birth Or Using Sex-segregated School Programs And Activities Or School Facilities That Do Not Align With The Child's Sex Assignment At Birth, Within Three Days Of Becoming Aware Of Such Conduct Or Request By The Affected Student; To Provide That No School Personnel Shall Be Disciplined Or Suffer Any Unlawful Reprisal For Refusing To Acknowledge A Student By A Preferred Gender, Pronoun Or Animal Species That Is Inconsistent With The Child's Sex Assignment At Birth; To Prescribe The Legislative Intent; And For Related Purposes."

Emphasis added. Despite what the description and summary says, the bill text itself doesn't mention either of the topics that I emphasized here. This leaves it an ordinary example of legislature proposed to discriminate against transgender students in public schools. This is a common pattern in anti-furry bills, where an early version of the bill mentions students who identify as nonhuman animal species, to try to attract attention, and then the sponsors delete that part later so that the bill can focus on their real intentions against transgender students. Republicans mean for the temporary inclusion of that topic to satirize transgender students and make a comparison that they see as absurd. It's a reference to an urban legend that Republicans circulate, where supposedly schools that let transgender students use the restrooms they want are also providing litter boxes in classrooms for students who are furries. That urban legend has been debunked by the fact-checking sites Snopes and Reuters.

The bill was sponsored by these eleven Republican Representatives: Charles Blackwell, William Arnold, Randy Boyd, Larry Byrd, Carolyn Crawford, Jim Estrada, Greg Haney, Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, Donnie Scoggin, Joseph Tubb, and Beth Waldo. These are some of the same authors as a similar anti-furry bill from last year, Mississippi House Bill 176, which was also written by the same Blackwell, Arnold, Boyd, Byrd, and Scoggin, plus Dan Eubanks and Jimmy Fondren.

[Edited to add] Another new one is Oklahoma House Bill 1327, by sole sponsor Justin Humphrey. This is basically the same as his bill from last year, Oklahoma House Bill 3084, still proposing that students who identify as animals should get picked up from school by animal control. He specializes in introducing bills that sound bizarre to attract attention, and later he cleans them up so they'll pass into law. He prefiled it on December 30th so that it will be introduced on February 3.

Anti-furry bills similar to these began in 2023 with North Dakota House Bill 1522, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943, Indiana Statehouse Bill 380, and a proposed amendment to Montana Senate Bill 544. 2024 had Oklahoma House Bill 3084, Mississippi House Bill 176, and Missouri House Bill 2678. No anti-furry bills have yet passed into law as such. Fellow volunteers and I have been reporting on these in the Otherkin News blog all along, which you can read in the tag for that purpose. Don't like this bill? If you're a US citizen, voting is only one of your powers to shape the laws that you live under. In the recording of my polycule's panel about anti-furry bills, skip to the timestamp 23:44 to hear what ordinary citizens can do. In the written script of our lecture, see Slides 21 through 25.

comments

New York bill proposes criminalizing costumes and masks in public

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:02:41 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

During the previous two years, Republicans in the US have penned "anti-furry bills." These come from Republicans rumoring that schools also provide litter boxes for students who believe they are animals. The rumor has been debunked by the fact-checking sites Snopes and Reuters. Anti-furry bills oppose what the legislators variously and inaccurately describe as people who are furry, anthropomorphic, transspecies, identifying as animals, or having the "perception of being any animal species other than human". Sometimes the text of the bill itself uses those words, and sometimes the legislators only spell that out in interviews. The bills are based on the satirical urban legend about litter boxes, not on the behavior of any real people. The purpose is to satirize transgender students' requests to use the correct restrooms in schools. Republicans care about this as part of a vendetta against public schools and LGBT people.

The bills began in 2023 with North Dakota House Bill 1522, Oklahoma Senate Bill 943, Indiana Statehouse Bill 380, and a proposed amendment to Montana Senate Bill 544. 2024 had Oklahoma House Bill 3084, Mississippi House Bill 176, and Missouri House Bill 2678. No anti-furry bills have yet passed into law as such. Fellow volunteers and I have been reporting on these in the Otherkin News blog all along, which you can read in the tag for that purpose. I expect to see Republicans propose some more anti-furry bills this year, too. Here is the first relevant bill for 2025 that I've found, though it is not specifically what I would categorize as an anti-furry bill.

New York Senate Bill 723 would make it be a class B misdemeanor to wear a mask and/or costume in public places. It describes these as "deceptive wearing of a mask" and "disguised by unusual or unnatural attire." It would be a crime even for people who are doing harmless activities, such as "loiter[ing], remain[ing] or congregat[ing] in a public place with other persons so masked or disguised while engaged in a protest, rally or other public assembly." The explicit purpose is to make it more difficult for peaceful protestors to maintain any anonymity.

Today, one common tactic of protestors is "Black Bloc," in which all the protestors cover themselves in sunglasses and black clothing from head to foot. They hide their body shape as well as hair and faces as much as possible. Because Bloc makes the whole group look uniformly similar and anonymous, it makes it more difficult for police to identify an individual for later legal punishment or single someone out for immediate brutality. Covering one's skin and eyes as part of Black Bloc also gives some protection from pepper spray. If Black Bloc is banned, protestors will be more vulnerable to injury and police violence. If common attire of protestors is criminalized, then the bill could be used to some degree to limit or effectively ban peaceful protest, which is a First Amendment right. For centuries, disguises have played a role in how protestors protect their anonymity, show who they're together with, or invoke cultural symbols and beliefs (Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors, pp. 75-80). In American history alone, disguises were a part of the famous protest that led to the US becoming an independent nation in the first place: the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

If your city in the state of New York requires permission from the police or other authorities for entertainment events, then Senate Bill 723 would require you to specifically get permission for people to wear disguises to the event, because it makes an exception for those. The bill also makes an exception for attire worn for religious reasons.

This bill could have an impact on other sorts of gatherings. It leaves itself open for various sorts of people to be considered to be wearing "unusual or unnatural attire." It doesn't specifically mention people who wear costumes and masks as part of hobbies such as fursuiting, cosplay, and quadrobics, but it could have an impact on them. There are other bills that oppose transgender people in much more explicit ways, but couldn't this one also be stretched to be used against people whose outfits don't conform with their assigned gender?

The bill was prefiled on January 8 by Republican Senators Steven Rhoads, George Borrello, Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Jack Martins, Mario Mattera, Dean Murray, Peter Oberacker, William Weber, and Alexis Weik. Here is the bill on the New York Senate government website: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S723

If you care about costuming hobbies as well as the First Amendment right to peaceful protest, what can you do about this bill? My partners Page Shepard, House of Chimeras, and I have presented a convention panel about that. In the recording of our panel, skip to the timestamp 23:44 to hear what ordinary people can do about bad bills. In the written script of our lecture, see Slides 21 through 25.

comments

Russia proposes banning quadrobics and furry fandom

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 17:31:38 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

The Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League is an organization for censoring the internet in Russia and educating the public about risks they may encounter there. The State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children helped establish the organization in 2011. The League’s Ombudsman is Irina Volynets. In the spring of 2024, Volynets said that the furry fandom and quadrobics are both dangerous hobbies. She said that furries dress as pigs and eat from troughs. (Later, a furry explained to the news that they don’t do that.) Soon afterward, Volynets claimed to have received death threats from quadrobists, which she said shows they’re generally hostile. The League doesn’t plan to ban cartoons for having furry characters. Instead, they want to ban quadrobics and furry fans for encouraging “crazy” behavior and having direct connections with LGBT. Russia bans LGBT for allegedly being an extremist movement.

At the end of the summer of 2024, Russian pop singer Mia Boyka humiliated a small child for expressing an interest in quadrobics. Boyka derided the cat-masked child to tears on the concert stage in front of a booing audience. Boyka then posted a video clip of that to her TikTok, asking her followers what they thought of quadrobics. The child’s parents filed a police report, because they hadn’t consented to Boyka doing any of this. The child had been brought on stage because she had gotten lost at the concert so her parents could come find her. Other celebrities and authorities scolded Boyka for her cruelty. Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, wrote to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation that she thought that what Boyka did was unacceptable treatment of a child, even though she didn’t support quadrobics either.

In September, soon after Boyka’s video clip went viral, Russian Senator Natalia Kosikhina proposed banning quadrobics. The Senator claimed that the sport was dangerous because supposedly, quadrobist teens attack and bite people who visit parks. So far, I haven’t found names, dates, or proof that those sorts of attacks actually happened. State Duma deputy Svetlana Bessarab says the ban is unnecessary, because the Code of Administrative Offenses would cover any bad behavior that could develop in connection with the hobby, whereas the hobby itself is a healthy form of play.

Something consistent across the articles that I read about this is that they describe quadrobics as a fashionable hobby among children and teens, derived from normal ways that smaller children play, and connected with the furry fandom. They don’t mention therianthropes.

About the author: Orion Scribner is a moderator on the Otherkin News blog. I used machine translation to get the gist of the Russian-language sources, which isn't a real translation, so I welcome corrections to that from fluent speakers. However, I never write articles with the assistance of procedural generation or so-called artificial intelligence (AI), and that type of content isn’t allowed on this blog.

Annotated List of Sources

Fliskaya, Anna, and Lomeiko, Alexandra (Анна Флиская, Александра Ломейко) (September 11, 2024). “Больше запретов — выше интерес. Кому и чем не угодили квадроберы.” (“More bans, more interest. Who and what did not please the quadrobists.”) 360.ru. https://360.ru/news/obschestvo/bolshe-zapretov-vyshe-interes-komu-i-chem-ne-ugodili-kvadrobery/ Archived September 27, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240927163837/https://360.ru/news/obschestvo/bolshe-zapretov-vyshe-interes-komu-i-chem-ne-ugodili-kvadrobery/

Bessarab’s interview with 360.ru, where he said the ban isn’t necessary. 360.ru is the news site counterpart of the TV satellite channel called "360°," which has 24-hour news. It's owned by the Russian government, and I noticed in one of the other articles from them that they had distorted the facts of events.

Kedr.Media (September 12, 2024). “«Может привести к трагическим последствиям». В Совфеде заявили о необходимости запрета квадробинга — детского подражания животным.” (“‘It could lead to tragic consequences.’ The Federation Council has declared the need to ban quadrobics— children's imitation of animals.”) Kedr.Media. https://kedr.media/news/mozhet-privesti-k-tragicheskim-posledstviyam-v-sovfede-zayavili-o-neobhodimosti-zapreta-kvadrobinga-detskogo-podrazhaniya-zhivotnym/ Archived December 4, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241204123625/https://kedr.media/news/mozhet-privesti-k-tragicheskim-posledstviyam-v-sovfede-zayavili-o-neobhodimosti-zapreta-kvadrobinga-detskogo-podrazhaniya-zhivotnym/

About the proposed ban, and how psychologists and authorities don’t support the ban and think it’s okay for children to be quadrobists. Kedr.Media is an independent social media blog that usually covers news about the environment.

Kholodov, Vlad (Влад Холодов) (April 26, 2024). “Психиатр Федорович: Увлечение «фурри» может нарушить психику ребенка.” (“Psychiatrist Fedorovich: The furry fandom can violate the psyche of the child.”) Общественной службе новостей (Public News Source). https://www.osnmedia.ru/obshhestvo/psihiatr-fedorovich-uvlechenie-furri-mozhet-narushit-psihiku-rebenka/ Archived May 26, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240526235959/https://www.osnmedia.ru/obshhestvo/psihiatr-fedorovich-uvlechenie-furri-mozhet-narushit-psihiku-rebenka/

This is the original interview with the children’s psychiatrist Alexander Fedorovich about the furry fandom. Despite the clickbait headline, Federovich says that the furry fandom isn’t inherently bad for children, but parents should supervise and pull children out of it if they get into age-inappropriate risks. That seems reasonable, but he does make a strange claim that role-play can interfere with a child’s developing sense of identity, and that it would be healthy only if they do not have an animal character all the time.

Kosolapova, Tatiana (Татьяна Косолапова) (September 12, 2024). “Психолог рассказала, как вести себя при встрече с агрессивными квадроберами” (“The psychologist told how to behave when meeting with aggressive quadrobist.”) Vzglyad. https://vz.ru/news/2024/9/12/1286730.html Archived November 8, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241108083139/https://vz.ru/news/2024/9/12/1286730.html In Russian.

An interview with a psychotherapist from Moscow State University, Vera Sukhikh, about what she thinks of quadrobics. She praises their athleticism as they play outside, and doesn’t think it’s inherently any harm. The journalist claims that quadrobists attack and bite people. The psychotherapist doesn’t actually agree that that happens, but advises that if they do attack you, they’re only children, so you should just explain to them that’s not appropriate behavior. Media Bias Fact Check rates this newspaper as a questionable source with propaganda and many failed fact checks.

Lutsenko, Nadezhda, and Petrov, Anatoly (Надежда Луценко, Анатолий Петров). (September 5, 2024). “«Замаскированная форма экстремизма». В России призвали запретить движение квадроберов.” (“‘A Disguised Form of Extremism’: Russia Calls for Banning Quad Bike Movement.”) 360.ru. https://360.ru/tekst/obschestvo/zamaskirovannaja-forma-ekstremizma-v-rossii-prizvali-zapretit-dvizhenie-kvadroberov/ Archived October 8, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008065407/https://360.ru/tekst/obschestvo/zamaskirovannaja-forma-ekstremizma-v-rossii-prizvali-zapretit-dvizhenie-kvadroberov/

Political scientist Alexei Yaroshenko has an interview with 360.ru about what he thinks of quadrobics. He says Russia should recognize quadrobics as an extremist movement and banned. He says quadrobists attack passersby because when people imitate animal behavior, they are no longer guided by human morals. He says it’s the same as how people can be transgender in the West. He compares it with the “Blue Whale Challenge,” and says that quadrobics is also a deadly game. (Orion’s note: the Blue Whale Challenge is an urban legend. It was a moral panic in 2016 where people were afraid that millions of youth were committing suicide as the climax of a specific series of dares being given to them by administrators on social media.) He says that if children play on all fours, then next they will want to cross the street at the wrong place, as animals do. Everything he said was out of touch with reality. This is also the only source I read that claimed that the pop singer hadn’t really insulted the little child, that she had told her she was beautiful without her mask. That’s a distortion of facts, because independent news sources and Kremlin-aligned ones had all agreed that the pop star had gone too far in mistreating the child.

Moscow Times Reporter (September 13, 2024). “What Is Quadrobics, Russia’s Viral But Divisive Youth Subculture?” The Moscow Times. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/09/13/what-is-quadrobics-russias-viral-but-divisive-youth-subculture-a86370 Archived October 8, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008073201/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/09/13/what-is-quadrobics-russias-viral-but-divisive-youth-subculture-a86370

Media Bias Fact Check rates this as a high credibility source with a left-center bias. This is the English-language source where I first heard about this. Hat tip to Mord for having posted a link to it in the Discord server for the Otherkin Wiki. Many of the other sources that I’m listing here, I learned about them from this article.

Mustafa, Samer (Самер Мустафа) (September 11, 2024). “В России предложили запретить квадроберов.” (“Russia proposes banning quadrobics.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2024/09/11/23896279.shtml?updated

Media Bias Fact Check says this is “one of Russia’s leading online newspapers,” but rates the newspaper as a questionable source, lacking in transparency. This article is a secondary source. It says RIA Novosti is the primary source for this news. That one is elsewhere in my list of sources.

Nekasrov, Ivan (Иван Некрасов) (September 3, 2024). “«Позор тебе и твоим фанатам»: Миа Бойка унизила ребенка со сцены — теперь ее требуют отменить.” (“‘Shame on you and your fans:’ Mia Boyka humiliated the child from the stage – now they demand to cancel it.”) Chita.ru. https://www.chita.ru/text/culture/2024/09/03/74039252/ Archived September 9, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240909054834/https://www.chita.ru/text/culture/2024/09/03/74039252/ In Russian.

This magazine article goes into the most depth about the pop singer publicly humiliating a small child for liking quadrobics.

RIA Novosti (November 9, 2024). “В Совфеде предложили запретить субкультуру квадроберов.” (“The Federation Council proposed banning the quadrobics subculture.”) RIA Novosti. https://ria.ru/20240911/kvadrobery-1971964812.html Archived October 8, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241008010414/https://ria.ru/20240911/kvadrobery-1971964812.html

About the Senator’s proposal to ban quadrobics. I think this article may be the primary source for her proposal. It sounds like she said it directly to this newspaper. If there’s a legal source for the proposed ban itself, I don’t know where to look for it. Media Bias Fact Check rates this Russian government owned newspaper as a questionable source with state propaganda and many failed fact checks.

Titorenko, Danila (Данила Титоренко) (April 23, 2024). “В Татарстане рассказали о новой вредоносной субкультуре с Запада.” (“Tatarstan talks about a new harmful subculture from the West.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/04/23/22855358.shtml

Volynets says she will fight the furry fandom because it is from the West. She says that furries engage in psychologically destructive behavior, such as– she claims– eating out of troughs like pigs.

Vesnina, Alexandra (Александра Веснина) (April 27, 2024). “«Размытие границ»: Волынец увидела в квадробике расчеловечивание.” (“‘Blurring the Lines’: Volynets Sees Dehumanization in the Quadrobists.”) Национальная служба новостей (National News Service). https://nsn.fm/society/razmytie-granits-volynets-uvidela-v-kvadrobike-raschelovechivanie Archived November 1, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20241101212302/https://nsn.fm/society/razmytie-granits-volynets-uvidela-v-kvadrobike-raschelovechivanie

Volynets announced in Russia's National News Service press center that after she spoke against quadrobists, she received death threats.

Vesnina, Alexandra (Александра Веснина) (April 27, 2024). “«Дурачество!»: Милонов предрек исчезновение квадробики через полгода.” (“‘Stupidity!’: Milonov predicts quadrobics will disappear in six months.”) Национальная служба новостей (National News Service) https://nsn.fm/society/durost-milonov-predrek-ischeznovenie-kvadrobiki-cherez-polgoda Archived April 27, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240427112916/https://nsn.fm/society/durost-milonov-predrek-ischeznovenie-kvadrobiki-cherez-polgoda

Vitaly Milnov is the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Paternity, Motherhood and Childhood. He says that the furry fandom and quadrobics are foolish teen fads that come from Japan and Korea. He says everyone will forget about it later this year.

Zakarian, Ekaterina (April 23, 2024). “Фурри заявили Ирине Волынец, что не подражают свиньям и не едят из корыта.” (“Furry told Irina Volynets that they do not imitate pigs and do not eat from troughs.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/04/23/22856132.shtml?updated

An anonymous administrator of a furry fandom community on the social media network VKontakte spoke up about how Volynets is spreading misinformation about furry fans. He says they don’t imitate animal behavior or eat from troughs, as Volynets claimed. Instead, they appreciate cartoon animals that behave like humans, including those from Soviet cartoons, not just from the West.

Zamanova, Rosalia (Розалия Заманова) (April 26, 2024). “Психиатр заявил об опасности субкультуры фурри для психики ребенка.” (“Psychiatrist warns about the dangers of a furry subculture for the psyche of the child.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/04/26/22877533.shtml

This is a secondary source reporting on the Public News Source’s interview with the children’s psychiatrist Alexander Federovich, which I have elsewhere in this list of sources.

Zamanova, Rosalia (Розалия Заманова) (May 2, 2024). “Волынец заявила об угрозах от представителей квадробика.” (“Volynets reported threats from representatives of quadrobics.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/05/02/22918993.shtml

Volynets claims that after she started writing on social media that quadrobists are dangerous, she received death threats from them.

Zamanova, Rosalia (Розалия Заманова) (September 12, 2024). “В Госдуме не поддержали идею запретить квадроберов в России.” (“Duma did not support banning quadrobics in Russia.”) Gazeta.ru. https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/09/12/23906437.shtml

This is a secondary source about the interview with 360.ru.

comments

Therianthropy Day will be tomorrow

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:13:17 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

Therianthropy Day is held every year on the first full moon of November. This year, in 2024, that falls on Friday the 15th. According to NASA, this also happens to be a supermoon, which means it's slightly brighter than usual.

Why that date, and what is the history of that holiday?
Therianthropy Day commemorates the first Howl, which was held 30 years ago in November 1994. A Howl is when therians meet up together in person. That was a year after the first therians started to meet up together online in November 1993. Therians first proposed commemorating it as a holiday on that date in 1996. Based on that history, in 2016, Muninn the Raven proposed observing it as Therianthropy Day, though the first posts and community poll about it attracted little attention. I think the holiday finally really caught on in 2021, when I first saw many therians posting on social media about fun things they were doing for it.

What are therians, anyway?
* If therianthropy is a new idea to you, or you want to explain it to others who are unfamiliar with it, this essay is a quick and easy to understand introduction to it. It's available in several languages already, and more translations would be great.
* Learn more about the history of the therian community by reading the Timeline of the Therian Community written by houseofchimeras.

What can we do for Therianthropy Day?
* I've seen therians celebrate it by wearing gear (for example, a necklace with the therian symbol, or clothes with pictures of their species), meeting up with their therian friends, and howling at the moon.
* Enjoy some indie games and zines about therianthropy from this hand-curated itch.io collection. Some therian highlights from that: SlumberDragon's zine of self-care tips for animal folk, who_is_page's therianthropy-inspired solo journaling game Wolf In Man's Clothing, puppygirlbelly's interactive story I Am Dog(s), and Digital Freegans's zines THERIANARCHY and BEAST PUNKS.

Are there days for other sorts of alterhumans too?
There are. Alterhuman Day commemorates when Lio of the Crossroads System coined that word on September 26, 2014. Otherkin Day is on July 9, commemorating when the word was coined in 1990, though arethinn has found that the word's origin is a little more complicated than that. Plural Events says that Plural Pride Day is the third Saturday of July, and Plural Acceptance Week is that week.

comments

Alterhuman Writing Challenge

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:03:51 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

In November 2024, The Sol System's Alterhuman Writing Challenge asked alterhumans to "finish and publish at least one piece of writing a day, on your platform of choice [...] about or in connection to alterhumanity". This has inspired some alterhumans to post to their own Dreamwidth blogs and to the Alterhuman Community group on Tumblr.

Many different writing challenges emerged this November for a reason. Until this year, the most popular writing challenge was National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). People all over the world would push themselves daily to try to start and finish writing a 50,000 novel within the thirty days. The nonprofit organization for NaNoWriMo marred its 25th anniversary by announcing support for people using so-called artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to write their novels for them. That take was unpopular because it would defeat the purpose of the challenge, among other reasons. Former fans organized many alternatives and resources for DIYing their own writing activities without AI or that nonprofit organization. These indie writers use other word count trackers, such as Track Bear. They use various other writing challenges, such as the one above.

AI-generated fiction story texts are problematic for many reasons. Their body of text comes from writers whose works were used without their permission. Training software in this way counts as fair use, but the output can end up being similar enough to the originals to result in copyright infringement and is recognized as plagiarism. Even text generation for bots such as ChatGPT requires such an absurd amount of electricity that the fad for AI is contributing to an energy crisis. Even though it has always been difficult for creative people to make a living, people who imagine that they can turn AI generated fiction into easy money have sent overwhelming quantities of it to magazines, wasting the time of the editors. Personally, I find no appeal in reading a story that hasn't had any heart put into its choice of words. Often, it's plain that no person even oversaw or proofread them.

Whatever you write for the Alterhuman Writing Challenge, you can proudly label your creations as "Alterhuman Made, Not AI-Generated" or "Nonhuman Made, Not AI-Generated" with these icons that Nova designed earlier this year. These were inspired by other graphics for labeling one's creations as having been made without AI. For example, Hinokodo's "Human Made" (released in December 2022, I think these were the first of these sorts of labels) and Lone Archivist's "Made By Humans" (August 2023). These earlier designs are good, it's just that their wording doesn't focus on calling out that its point is that it is free of AI generation, and doesn't align with how some of us creators want to describe ourselves. Both of those use human hand prints, so Nova's alterhuman/nonhuman spinoff of them uses paw prints.

If you have an account here on Dreamwidth or can take a minute to create one, yesterday I created a group, alterhuman_writing. That community account is a place for us to share our essays, poetry, and other creative writing about being alterhuman. This month's Alterhuman Writing Challenge inspired the creation of the group, but it will continue to be a place for posting our writings all around the year.

comments

Therian quadrobics popular for children in Finland; two schools ban animal masks

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 04:20:32 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

In Finland, between May and September, newspapers published many articles on therianthropes. The papers are Iltalehti (Evening Newspaper), Ilta-Sanomat (The Evening News), Yle (Finnish Broadcasting Company), and MTV Uutiset (Commercial Television News, no relationship to the MTV channel in America).

These articles show a hobby popularized among children and teens on the social media app TikTok, where therians exercise on all fours (quadrobics), imitating animal movements. With practice, they can jump high and land on their hands, and other challenging feats. Therian quadrobicists hand-make and wear a certain style of upper-face animal masks to express themselves and protect their privacy on the informal video-sharing app. Some other common accessories are a tail made of yarn or fur, fastened to their belt. Some wear sneakers painted to look like paws, or take their shoes off while exercising. They practice making animal vocalizations. The therianthrope community is multi-generational and has existed since 1994, but this set of practices– quadrobics and masks– are a new development among the youngest generation of therians. While some of these young self-described therians say that being an animal is an integral part of who they are, some others firmly say they don’t, and simply enjoy it as a creative hobby, which is another difference from previous generations of therians.

Therian children who express themselves in these ways have been becoming visible in some schools in Finland. Although this hasn’t been a big problem, school officials have started setting boundaries about it to make sure that class won’t be disrupted by students wearing masks or making animal noises. Students need to wear shoes outdoors and take them off inside the school, which means that kids who take off their shoes to play outside will track mud onto the floors, and dirty other children's socks. Before this school year started, the principals of the schools in the cities of Oulu and Joensuu sent messages to parents banning students from these behaviors in class, along with other sorts of costumes and toys. This brought public attention to therians. In the past couple of weeks, the newspapers followed up on that by interviewing teen therians, parents, public figures, locals, and child welfare experts. Aside from a few opinion pieces and some reasonable concerns, nearly all of these express a positive attitude toward therians and give accurate information about what they are. This shows that young quadrobicists have been successful at building a good image for therians, because parents and others who work with children like it when kids do crafts and play outside together.

I don’t know Finnish, so I’m having to access these articles with the help of machine translation. That’s not a proper translation. One challenge I’m aware of is that Finnish doesn’t have the words he or she, so the machine translation alternates between them arbitrarily, with no clue of what would be correct for that person in English. In the following annotated bibliography of the articles, I’ll do my best to figure out a probably correct translation of their titles and give a summary, but be aware that nuances may be confused or lost.

Finnish news articles from earlier this year, before the ban:

Maria Aarnio (May 29, 2024). “‘Käsite oli meille aikuisille aivan uusi’ – millainen ilmiö on nuorten keskuudessa suosittu therian?” (‘The concept was completely new to us adults’ – what kind of therian fad is popular among young people?) MTV Uutiset. https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/kasite-oli-meille-aikuisille-aivan-uusi-millainen-ilmio-on-nuorten-keskuudessa-suosittu-therian/8941648#gs.e0lnr6 Archived September 7, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240907063037/https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/kasite-oli-meille-aikuisille-aivan-uusi-millainen-ilmio-on-nuorten-keskuudessa-suosittu-therian/8941648#gs.e0lnr6

This describes therianthropy and quadrobics, and what parents need to know if their children are interested in them. The article also mentions the word otherhearted.

Samppa Rautio (June 16, 2024; republished on September 5, 2024 in response to the therian ban in schools). “Karhuna ihmiskehossa.” (A bear in a human body.) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010677056.html Archived September 10, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240910233804/https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010677056.html

This is an interview with a bear therian, age 34. Although the article shows many photos of this person, all have a bear mask on, and it changes the bear’s name to Karoliina for privacy reasons. The bear accurately summarizes many features of therianthropy. The article has remarks about therians from Rasmus Mannerström, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki, and Michael Bond, author of Fans: A Journey into the Psychology of Belonging. The article also cites a survey of therian mental health, run by Helen Clegg, Rosalyn M Collings, and Elizabeth C Roxburgh. In 2019, the piece by Clegg et al had been published as “Therianthropy: wellbeing, schizotypy, and autism in individuals who self-identify as non-human.” I think it might be partly thanks to this bear and this thoughtful journalist that the later news coverage of therians was well informed and positive.

Finnish news articles from after the ban, in chronological order:

Maija Kansanen (August 20, 2024). “Lapset puhuvat kouluissa kieltä, jota aikuisen voi olla vaikea ymmärtää – Tässä ovat tämän hetken trendit.” (Children speak language in schools that can be difficult for an adult to understand – Here are the trends of the moment.) Helsingen Sanomat. https://www.hs.fi/suomi/art-2000010633508.html Archived September 7, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240907102344/https://www.hs.fi/suomi/art-2000010633508.html

The other articles say this is the first article that reported the ban. The article itself is behind a paywall.

Emilia Saukkonen (August 21, 2024). “Therian-maskit pannaan: Karsikon koulussa oppilaat eivät saa enää käyttää naamioita.” (Therian masks are banned: Students at Karsikko School are no longer allowed to wear masks.) Yle. https://yle.fi/a/74-20106426 Archived September 11, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240911004645/https://yle.fi/a/74-20106426

This article talks about the ban at the school in Oulu. It also summarizes the earlier article that interviewed the bear therian. The school principal says that youth fads come and go, and has no opinion of it as being good or bad. The school can make an exception to the ban if the student welfare staff decides it's important to a child's psychological health.

Jussi Korhonen (September 3, 2024). "Lehdet: Lapset ovat alkaneet identifioitua eläimiksi – Kouluissa aloitettu toimet." (Magazines: Children have started to identify as animals – Actions started in schools.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/1674616c-7c65-4c9f-a56b-810197927309 Archived September 9, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240909091227/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/1674616c-7c65-4c9f-a56b-810197927309

This talks about the ban at both schools.

Jessica Helaskoski and Catherine Kähkönen (September 3, 2024). “Joensuulaiskoulu kielsi eläimiksi identifioituvien lasten naamiot – therian-ilmiö aiheuttanut ongelmia myös muissa kouluissa.” MTV Uutiset. https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/joensuulaiskoulu-kielsi-elaimiksi-identifioituvien-lasten-naamiot-therian-ilmio-aiheuttanut-ongelmia-myos-muissa-kouluissa/9000934

This talks about the ban at both schools. The school in Joenssu explained that their reason for the ban is that they need to be able to tell who's who, and anyone could be behind an animal mask, so those can't be allowed in class or at recess. The school in Oulu said that their own reason for the ban was that children had brought their play behavior in from recess and misbehaved in class. However, in all these articles about the ban in the Oulu school, it looks unclear to me whether they mean that this had really happened at their own school, or if they had only heard that it was happening at other schools in general.

Samppa Rautio (September 3, 2024). “Oululaiskoulu kieltää therianit – rehtori sai tarpeekseen: ‘Tunnillakin konttaillaan ja mau’utaan.’” (Oulu school bans therians – the principal had enough: ‘Even in class they growl and meow.’) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010670861.html Archived September 9, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240909102458/https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010670861.html

Riku Isokoski (September 4, 2024). “Hämmentävä ilmiö voimistuu lasten keskuudessa – Asiantuntija kertoo, miksi he matkivat eläimiä.” (Confusing phenomenon intensification among children – Expert explains why they mimic animals.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/d561f1f2-b045-4bf9-9035-661b6ce2e61a Archived September 5, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240905015447/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/d561f1f2-b045-4bf9-9035-661b6ce2e61a

Kaisa Önlen from the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare explains that therianthropy is deeper than a hobby, so will turn out to be a permanent part of the identity for some teens, whereas for some teens, it’s just something they’re trying out for fun. Children need to be allowed to experiment and play to discover who they are in the world.

Jasmin Levo (September 4, 2024). “Näkökulma: Kuinka pitkälle opettajien pitää vielä venyä? Therian-ilmiö on vain jäävuorenhuippu.” (Viewpoint: How far do teachers need to go? The therian phenomenon is just a tip to the iceberg.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/perheartikkelit/a/f9527a79-095c-4547-8d75-c532f29e6e93 Archived September 9, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240909145615/https://www.iltalehti.fi/perheartikkelit/a/f9527a79-095c-4547-8d75-c532f29e6e93

An opinion article about how children who want to make animal noises in class are only one of many sorts of disruptive behavior in children’s classrooms, comparing this with cell phone use.

Samppa Rautio (September 4, 2024). “Nyt puhuu therianin äiti.” (Now talking to therian's mother.) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010674287.html Archived September 11, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240911041011/https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010674287.html

An interview with a mother about how the ban saddened her child to the point of asking to switch to a nearby school where it wasn’t banned. That mother saw the therian children have a healthy and positive experience together. She was concerned that the schools limit children’s freedom of expression too much, and might start banning nonconformist fashion styles too, such as goths. In contrast, another mother supported the ban. She had seen that her own child’s curiosity about therians had led to places on the internet that weren’t appropriate for children. The child had encountered an adult online with sexual content, and had planned to go to an adult therian meet-up. The mother grounded her child from social media. Her child had also gotten very sore from practicing quadrobics, but not injured.

Lilja Hannila (September 5, 2024). "Näin opettaja saa keskeyttää therianin ”kiisuilun” ilman, että syyllistyy laittomuuksiin: Juristi arvioi Wilma-jyrähdystä." (This allows the teacher to ban therian 'masking' without committing any illegalities: A lawyer will assess the Wilma message.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/46005c9f-b27f-496b-b819-25de3100c47c Archived September 10, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240910091006/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/46005c9f-b27f-496b-b819-25de3100c47c

It was controversial for the schools to ban masks, because that's a dress code. A lawyer at the Finnish National Board of Education, Laura Francke, explains about school dress codes in general.

Leo Jaakkonen. (September 5, 2024). “Eläinmaskit hämmentävät kouluissa – nyt puhuvat therian-lapset.” (Animal masks confuse schools – now talking about therian children.) MTV Uutiset. https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/elainmaskit-hammentavat-kouluissa-nyt-puhuvat-therian-lapset/9002214

Leo Kirjonen (September 5, 2024). "Paulan 11-vuotias lapsi kuvittelee olevansa kettu: Äiti järkyttyi, kun therian-ilmiö kiellettiin Oulussa." (Paula's 11-year-old child thinks he's a fox: Mother shocked when therian phenomenon was banned in Oulu.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/5b167c83-51d6-45e0-b1fb-008089d45e8d Archived September 7, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240907083332/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/5b167c83-51d6-45e0-b1fb-008089d45e8d

Jere Silfsten (September 5, 2024). “Therian-huuma näkyy kaupassa – eläinmaskit viedään nyt käsistä.” (Therian masks are now sold in the store – animal masks are getting carried away.) MTV Uutiset. https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/therian-huuma-nakyy-kaupassa-elainmaskit-viedaan-nyt-kasista/9002094 Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20240912185250/https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/therian-huuma-nakyy-kaupassa-elainmaskit-viedaan-nyt-kasista/9002094

In the capital city Helsinki, the craft store Sirpa Saviluoto talks about therian animal masks. The store started selling them less than a year ago. The owner hadn't heard of therians before then, but has been learning from parents. Most buyers are primary school children. The store only sells blank masks, not ready-made ones or tails. The owner believes it's important for children to do crafts and make their masks and tails for themselves. The ban brought publicity and now the masks are selling faster than they can keep them in stock.

Heidi Asplund (September 6, 2024). “Kommentti: Aikuiset sekosivat lasten eläinmaskeista – hävetkää!” (Commentary: Adults ban children’s animal masks– shame!) MTV Uutiset. https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/kommentti-aikuiset-sekosivat-lasten-elainmaskeista-havetkaa/9002926

Anna Hopi and Riia Pakkanen (September 6, 2024). “Supernanny Pia Penttalan suorat sanat therian-ilmiöstä: ‘Pitäisi alkaa hätäkellot soimaan.’” (Supernanny Pia Penttala’s direct words about therian phenomenon: ‘There should be an emergency bell ringing.’) https://www.iltalehti.fi/viihdeuutiset/a/feee8339-324e-4787-9be2-0b696ab0d162 Archived September 7, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240907014441/https://www.iltalehti.fi/viihdeuutiset/a/feee8339-324e-4787-9be2-0b696ab0d162

This article interviews several TV celebrities on what they think parents should do if their children say they are therians. These opinions are not well informed about what therians are. They tend toward conjecture about bizarre and unlikely scenarios that haven’t happened.

Mikael Kaivanto (September 6, 2024). “Fazer-kahvilassa viittaus therianeihin? Näin toimitusjohtaja kommentoi.” (In Fazer Cafe, reference to therians? Here's how the CEO commented.) https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/4a80fb39-18e7-4d24-8b31-1b78e367cf61 Archived September 7, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240907013741/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/4a80fb39-18e7-4d24-8b31-1b78e367cf61

At a certain café in Helsinki, the figures on the restroom signs have animal ears. The CEO explained that the signs have been like this for a long time. It's part of their branding. Despite rumors, it’s not a reference to the recently fashionable hobby.

Mari Kononen (September 6, 2024). “Joensuulaiskoulu kielsi therianmaskit.” (Joensuu school bans therian masks.) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010681609.html Archived September 11, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240911091135/https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010681609.html

The principal of that school explains his reasoning for the ban is that students' faces need to be visible, during recess, too.

Samppa Rautio (September 6, 2024). “Therian-raivo järkyttää – ‘Elämme ihan outoa aikaa.’” (Therian fad shocks: ‘We are living in a strange time.’) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010679079.html Archived September 11, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240911073437/https://www.is.fi/perhe/art-2000010679079.html

The Ombudsman for Children, Elina Pekkarinen, looks at the hostile attitudes that adults have toward therian children. The Ombudsman explains that adults are often annoyed and scandalized by youth and youth fads, because adults want children to conform. She is disgusted at adults who have left comments on the internet saying that the children should be hunted like animals. It’s these adults who she calls strange, because it's terrible for adults to talk about children that way. She describes the therian hobby with approval.

Perrtu Kaupinen (September 7, 2024). "Pääkirjoitus: Lasten pitää saada leikkiä eläimiä, mutta leikkiä on vaarallista kutsua identiteetiksi." (Editorial: Children need to play animals, but it's dangerous to call play an identity.) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/paakirjoitus/a/8cc904b7-1c2c-461b-b9e3-c27313d0c740 Archived September 7, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240907013819/https://www.iltalehti.fi/paakirjoitus/a/8cc904b7-1c2c-461b-b9e3-c27313d0c740

This opinion article says that although the hobby itself is all right, it is disruptive if children try to continue animal behavior during class, and that calling therianthropy an identity makes a joke of the serious issue of gender identity.

Leo Kirjonen (September 7, 2024). "Rehtorit linjaavat therian-oppilaista: 'Emme me ole täällä eläiminä.'" (Principals say of Therian students: 'We are not here as animals.') https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/0d1ee0ed-e26f-4ae7-a3a6-129d6bfdf041 Archived September 7, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240907013152/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/0d1ee0ed-e26f-4ae7-a3a6-129d6bfdf041

The newspaper asked the officials of schools in different parts of Finland to find out if therian hobbyists were really so widespread as believed. Several schools had no sign of it or hadn't heard of it. All of them agreed that it sounded like a healthy activity for children, as long as the masks aren't scary to other younger children.

Heini Kilpamäki (September 7, 2024). "Seiko, 15, on therian – Nyt hänellä on painavaa sanottavaa trendi-ilmiöstä." (Seiko, 15, on therians – Now they speak up about trending.) Iltalehti.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/9f9616a8-9886-4540-9302-9b63caf8fb42 Archived September 10, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240910051442/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/9f9616a8-9886-4540-9302-9b63caf8fb42

This article interviews a teen therian– only by the nickname Seiko, to protect the child’s privacy– and the child’s parent, who explain about what it really means to be a therian and an alterhuman, using those words, and how it’s different from being a furry, and more than a fad or hobby.

Samppa Rautio (September 9, 2024). “Kommentti: Therian-ilmiössä on kyse yksinkertaisesta, mutta tärkeästä asiasta.” (Commentary: Therian fad is a simple but important issue.) Ilta-Sanomat. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010685958.html

An editor of the newspaper gives the opinion that it’s okay for children to use animal play to combat loneliness and find out who they are. The editor points out that adult therians are as able to behave themselves and speak normally as any other adult.

Heini Kilpamäki (September 11, 2024). “Lapset: Pilalla – Tässä 7 syytä.” Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/perheartikkelit/a/aa1b3e49-7a6e-4a1f-a1a3-b47a5e87a3f4

This humor article reminds its readers that therians and TikTok aren’t the first fads that adults said were inappropriate for young students. It gives some familiar examples from previous decades, such as people who had thought Elvis danced in a much too scandalous way.

Sanna Ukkola (September 12, 2024). “Kolumni: Apua, lapseni on susi – Nyt hän vaatii raakaa lihaa kouluruoaksi, mitä teen?” (Column: Help, my child is a wolf – Now he wants raw meat for school food, what do I do?) Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/29d8700f-9d9a-42df-9b23-ae04e7aada82 Archived September 14, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914005855/https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/29d8700f-9d9a-42df-9b23-ae04e7aada82

A mean-spirited satirical opinion piece describing bizarre scenarios that have not happened. Despite the title, this is not about someone's own child, and children haven’t been asking for raw meat in school.

comments

My Gender is [NOT] Human Zine is now available for download!

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 19:05:11 GMT

Posted by: nova_dergs

Xenogender: A gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things.

This zine is a collection of artwork, writing and more created by alterhumans and nonhumans to express both their species identity, gender, and how they intersect. While this zine has an xenogender slant, everyone who had something to share about how their species and gender overlap were encouraged to submit pieces!

Speaking of which: Thank you to everyone who submitted works! It means a lot to us that others think our project is valuable and are willing to use their time and ability to be a part of it! The community is so talented and varied, we hope this zine serves as a comfort for anyone who feels alone in their alterhuman and gender identities.

We created this zine to be an accessible pdf. Every entry is bookmarked for easy browsing, every image contribution is accompanied by alt text and we’ve done our best to battle against Adobe Acrobat's reading order to make sure it was logical! We’re also rather proud of figuring out how to make the content warnings also be links - so skipping ahead is only a click away.

Download it for free here!

comments

Alterhuman & Nonhuman Body Parts Sensation Survey

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:28:24 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

Who this survey is for: The purpose of this survey is to collect data about the experiences of people who feel sensations of nonhuman body parts, for example, wings or a tail. Some call these supernumerary phantom limbs, phantom shifts, otherlimbs, or astral limbs, though you may have other preferences for the words you use for your own experiences. If you haven't had those experiences, you can participate in this survey too. This survey was made for people who call themselves otherkin, therianthrope, furry, or any other potentially alterhuman or nonhuman identity. If you don't describe yourself with any of those words, you can participate in this survey too.

Who is running this survey and why: The person running this survey is Orion Scribner (they/them), an otherkin/therianthrope who has been making projects about these communities since 2005. I'm on Dreamwidth as frameacloud, and you can contact me at this email address, which uses the same handle as I use on most social media platforms: frameacloud@gmail.com I will use the results in my panel at an Internet-based convention later this year (OtherCon 2024), and in other future research projects.

Caution: Several questions ask in detail about pain and discomfort. A few questions mention sex. You have the option to not answer those parts. Please take this survey at a time when those questions would not make you feel embarrassed, inappropriate, or distressed. The survey will take you about 6 to 15 minutes.

Plural systems: Please take this survey only if your physical body is at least 18 years old, and submit only one survey response per physical body.

Privacy: To make it easier for a whole plural system to answer collectively, you can edit your survey response later. This is why you need to be logged in to Gmail to fill out this survey. The form will NOT show your email address to the person who created this survey.

All submissions are anonymous. This form does not ask for real names, birth dates, addresses, or similar personal details. I will anonymize or remove any identifying information from write-in responses before I publish the the survey data. Please do not write any identifying information into it.

If you choose to withdraw your submission but cannot edit your submission for whatever reason, please email me at frameacloud@gmail.com . You will need to tell me of something unique in your entry for me to find and delete your submission. In the process of doing so, please be aware that I will then also be able to associate your survey answers with your email address and you. I will not disclose these details to anyone else.

Your physical body MUST be at least 18 years old to participate in this survey.

The survey will take you about 6 to 15 minutes. Everyone age 18 and up is welcome to fill out the survey at THIS LINK, until it closes on July 6, 2024.

- Orion Scribner

comments

One anti-furry bill died, the other two wait to be heard

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 09:03:12 GMT

Posted by: frameacloud

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.

In the USA, 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.

comments