Texas GOP wants to ban kids from playing dress-up: Yes, really

[Jedi Guy]

28. The author of the bill is confusing furries with otherkin.

The former dress up as anthropomorphic animals in "fursuits" (which, incidentally, frequently cost upwards of $50k), which may or may not involve sexual activity. I rather doubt any Texas schoolkids are showing up to school rocking a fursuit, though some are probably furries.

Otherkin, on the other hand, believe they are animal souls in human bodies, sometimes nonexistent or mythical creatures such as dragons. They self-identify as the animal in question. They frequently believe they were an animal in a previous life and were reincarnated in human form. While I don't doubt that a handful of children engage in this behavior, mostly teenagers, it's primarily an adult thing.

As we all know, children will often pretend to be an animal as part of the rich fantasy life that characterizes childhood, "pretend" being the key word there. It's just how kids are and how some of them play, just as some pretend they're Spider-man or their favorite hero.

The "litter boxes in classrooms" meme swept across the right-leaning social media sphere as a absurdist mockery of the trans community, as in "haw haw, those weird leftie kids are identifying as animals now and schools are catering to their delusions".

This dumbass in Texas is uninformed on multiple levels, clearly has no clue what the hell he's talking about when presenting this "legislation", and should be roundly mocked and derided by all and sundry. This is an extreme case of legislating from ignorance.