Oklahoma House Bill 3084 / Furries Removed From School by Animal Control Bill

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Overview

Oklahoma House Bill 3084 or the Furries Removed From School by Animal Control Bill is a proposed bill by Republican legislator Justin Humphrey of Oklahoma that looks to have "students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animal species, or who engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries" banned from participating in the school curriculum and picked up by animal control if their parent or guardian won't pick them up. The bill was written up in December 2023 and went viral in mid-January 2024 along with a video of Humphrey using a myth about classes putting litter boxes in classrooms for students who identify as cats to support the bill, inspiring reactions and memes online, including pushback from the furry community.

History

On December 6th, 2023, House Bill 3084 was written up by Republican legislator Justin Humphrey of Oklahoma, which proposes that "students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animal species, or who engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities." The bill goes on to propose that a parent or guardian would be contacted to pick the student up, otherwise, animal control would be called to collect them (shown below). According to LegiScan,^[1] the bill will be introduced on February 5th, 2024.

That day, YouTuber^[2] David Chasanov posted a brief interview with Humphrey in which he voiced his reasoning for the bill, mentioning purported situations where students identifying as cats were a distraction to other students in the school. He also mentions a popular myth about litter boxes being put in schools for use by those who identify as cats.^[3]

News of the bill began to spread on January 17th, 2024, with multiple news media sites including HuffPost^[4] and Rolling Stone^[5] reporting on it.

Online Reactions

The proposed bill inspired reactions and memes on social media, including pushback from the furry community. On January 17th, 2024, X^[6] user @ZeppelinCoyote (a furry) posted several photos of themselves in their fursuit during high school, writing, "oklahoma is attempting to codify into law that furries can be removed from school using animal control," garnering over 170 likes in two days (shown below). On January 18th, TikToker^[7] @woke_karen posted a video explaining the bill, garnering over 45,000 views in a day.

That day, the Dexerto X^[8] page posted about the bill, garnering over 30,000 likes in a day. On the same day, X^[9] user @bluefolf posted a Hey Little Man Hows It Goin? meme expressing shock over the bill, garnering over 24,000 likes in the same timeframe (shown below). On January 19th, X^[10] user @karrotknife posted in response to the news, "you're a resident of oklahoma stop worrying about furries and go back to kissing your cousin," garnering over 130 likes in under a day.

Later on January 19th, Redditor u/Xyynez posted a headline about the bill to /r/BrandNewSentence^[11] titled "students dressed as furries could be collected by animal control," garnering over 2,200 upvotes in under a day.

Also on January 19th, 2024, X^[12] user @vincehooves posted two photos of themselves in their fursuit at school, writing, "Oklahoma animal control gonna be after me now 💪🏻," garnering over 200 likes in under a day (shown below, left), X^[13] user @Schilling1776 made a post supporting the bill, writing, "Yes. Force them to live by their own rules. If you truly are what you claim to identify as, then there is nothing wrong with this policy," garnering around 40 likes in under a day (shown below, right).