A viral hoax about furries became fodder for GOP moral panic

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Hayes Brown
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Six months ago, a Neb. state senator got roasted online for claiming that woke schools were setting up litterboxes for furries

He apologized — but the hoax is still being used as a way to denigrate trans kids and the adults who would protect them

msnbc.com
Opinion | A viral hoax about furries became fodder for GOP moral panic
The rumor has been debunked — but repeating it lets candidates talk about the depravity of "woke" schools.
8:38 AM · Oct 7, 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/why-republicans-pretend-schools-are-setting-litterboxes-students-n1299399

At first it sounds like something out of The Onion: Republican politician decries “woke” schools for tolerating students who identify as cats. You chuckle as you scroll past it on your social media feed. Because nobody could actually believe such a wild story, right?

Except it’s true — the part about Republicans’ spreading the claim, that is, not the part about kids’ telling their teachers they want to be treated like cats. That part is entirely made up and has been debunked repeatedly.

But that’s the thing: The lie keeps getting repeated, to the chagrin of school districts around the country. At this point it’s clear that this is less a funny bit of GOP nonsense than part of the party’s larger broadside against LGBTQ kids and their rights and against public schools in general.

In the last week we’ve heard two Republican candidates running for governor — Minnesota’s Scott Jensen and Colorado’s Heidi Ganahl — claim that kids are showing up for schools dressed as cats. Moreover, they say these schools are not just accommodating students who identify as animals, but also encouraging them. Of course, neither candidate’s campaign was able to identify just which schools were doing this despite being asked multiple times.

*snip*

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Disgusting, but as an aside, plenty of furries are totally straight/cis people (nt)

[yankee87]

2. Anti LGBTQI hysteria

The absolute frenzy and hysteria against our LGBTQI citizens is disgraceful and also scary. I am scared that we’ll have vigilantes going into schools looking for LGBTQI students.
Stay alert and safe

[I_UndergroundPanther]

3. Alt right assholes

Are stirring shit at Furry conventions.

Alot of furries are gblt. The right are destroying the safe enviroments in FurCons. There are literally nazi furs now. They are trying to destroy furry culture and this hoax fits in with the anti gblt anti furry bullshit the right is doing.

[gratuitous]

4. Exhibit A

When someone posts "Oh, that Democrat shouldn't have said X, because now the Republicans will twist it against all Democrats!" This is my latest Exhibit A for why it doesn't matter what anyone says or does; Republicans will twist it into some ginned-up nontroversy that never dies. The Furry Panic will die down in part because it's so ludicrous, but it will come back again and again in years to come and have to be swatted down again and again. Same thing happens with baseless child trafficking allegations or drinking the blood of murdered infants. All of this will be back in the news six months or a year from now as the media are distracted by some shoutycrackers Republican operative, and while they won't believe the unfounded rumors, they'll report them because of the Cokie Roberts Rule that the rumor is "out there" and therefore must be repeated.