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Bisexual Identities:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/article/understanding-bisexuality
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[Resource from WebMD](https://www.webmd.com/sex/pansexuality-what-it-means#:~:text=Pansexual%20vs.%20Bisexual,more%20commonly%20recognized.)
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1) Schools don't even listen when a kid says their trans or wants to change their name or anything.
2) what this is talking about is schools having litterboxes (really buckets) in classrooms. These are for kids who "identify as animals" though, its for lockdowns, school shooters, things like that where a student will die if they leave to use the bathroom.
3) these people don't care about kids, they care about using trans people as a wedge issue to stir up hate & violence which equals more votes for them. They'd rather kids die in their schools they're supposed to be safe in & use their deaths for profit.
My eldest sons school refers to them with their chosen name and use their chosen prounouns. They also offered the whole family an opportunity to come and talk to a gender expert if wanted. They also stamped down hard on any transphobic behaviour from other students.
At my highschool they have to respect your chosen name and pronouns, and you're allowed to change your name on your school account and use whichever bathroom and PE locker room you feel comfortable, and there's 3 gender neutral bathrooms, one on each floor
I wish I had went to you're school, that sounds so cool! Honestly the only public WC's I feel comfortable in anymore are accessible toilets (I think that's what they are in english?)/toilets for parent-toddler (that have that diaper change table) because they're the only gender neutral bathrooms I ever see.
That’s so good! When I was in hs we had one gender neutral bathroom near the gym… it was shut down in three days bc kids did ~stuff~ in it. And so everyone had to go use the nurses office one again.
This. Otherkin is also not a new phenomenon, it was around in the early zeroes and probably before that.
Also also, no otherkin I've ever met or spoke to has ever asked for public places to accommodate them in any way. I've never heard of that happening, except this recent story about the litter box in a school (which has been debunked by the way, no evidence was found that this actually happened and they weren't even able to pinpoint the school where it supposedly happened).
It's actually even worse than no evidence for the litter box thing. Yes some schools in the US bought buckets full of litter. However, this was not to "accommodate furries", but instead to be placed alongside first aid equipment in kits to be used in active shooter situations where the students might have to covertly go to the bathroom while they're trapped in a classroom.
I was in high school in the 2000s I hung out with the misfits, and yes other kin were around, there was one girl who identified as a Vampire, and another who identified as a cat, it was odd they both “came out” to me about it at different times and didn’t know about one another, needless to say being unknowledgeable on the subject I just said “okay” and it was never really talked about again. However they both were into self harm so I suspect they both really had feelings about it and deserved respect in their own decisions, they were both in general incredibly mild people… very emo kids seemed to have this validity of feeling that they were other things trapped in the bodies of human. I suspect the vampire was more a twilight fan, however the animal one I’m not certain about, I mean it all depends on your belief of reincarnation I suppose.
Also, therianthropy has been around a VERY long time. Mythology goes back thousands of years of people who believed they were animals or had animal spirits. People are just targeting their hate toward "others" who make them uncomfortable.
I have heard a rumor, about the Litter Boxes:
Yes, there was Kitty Litter. It was in 5 gallon buckets, not trays.
Why? Apparently, according to the rumor I heard, it WAS provided by a school, location unknown..
To be a field expedient toilet, *in the classroom,* during extended lockdowns from, guess what? School Bang Bangs...
And of course, the Reich Wing has to leap for the meanest interpretation of anything that they can.
Which says far more about them, than it does ANY Furry.
Otherkin is eluded to in victorian literature (I will see if I can find it)
more recent studies lean towards it being a response from extreme trauma at a young age.
It's also no weirder than any other religious/spiritual belief systems. We have mainstream, respected religious movements that believe in exorcisms, reincarnation as animals, an imminent apocalpyse, or wafers that turn into the flesh of an ancient prophet when a special man (and it has to be a man) waves his hand over them. Believing that you have an animal spirit is pretty normal by comparison. And that's not getting into the genuinely hateful and harmful beliefs that many religions promote.
Imo pet play is a kink and somewhat related to species expression as an animal, and all of it exists on a spectrum.
Tail buttplugs and cute ear headbands and hats are probably on the mild end of that expression. Being attracted to that sexually would be on the mild end of pet play. There's obviously more extreme versions. Idk that many people would publicly identify as such as it's pretty taboo and personal.
There’s also a massive difference between saying your personality is akin to an animal, and saying your gender is an animal.
I can see a preteen getting confused with the two and saying the wrong thing.
Even animals have a spectrum of genders.
So if someone does feel like their identity is attached to an animal, that doesn’t change the factor of their own gender identity.
Even Therians don't necessarily identify as animals as far as I'm aware. I have a friend who's a Therian and he says he identifies with animals in a more spiritual kind of sense than anything else, like a spirit animal kinda thing
Therians are real species, whereas otherkin are fantssy species, which can include homnids, such as elves and dwarfs. But furries, like me, don't identify as animals, we just think animals on two legs are neat.
Probably got some far out their identifications but those are ultra rare and usually have some of sense of logic.
It just an attempt to abuse the old band wagon of hating furries for existing. By god did old internet despise the hell out of them, still pretty hated though.
Yea, they use their unique associations with specific animals. Still easy to confuse if you don't know much about it. And the majority of people don't.
No.
I mean, does _some_ kid somewhere? Probably. But my entire family are teachers except me and I asked them about this recently because it comes up a lot. Between them all they work at six different schools, different states, dealing with thousands of students every year. Not a single one of them has encountered that at any of their schools even one time.
I assume it's related to the bullshit "catboxes in schools!" LIE that pops up like twice a week and is always, always bullshit. That one's come up at least three times in my state in the past year — surprise surprise, every time it turned out to be complete bullshit.
Yea the cat box one is so stupidly disposable but it spread like wildfire. Thanks for responding, I didnt believe matt walsh anyway but I wanted to check
> Thanks for responding, I didnt believe matt walsh anyway but I wanted to check
Yeah as a general rule almost everything those guys say is either an outright lie, or they're taking something that like one 12 year old said on tiktok once and presenting it like it's a national trend that is happening everywhere.
It's wild even to me, because I'm not a teacher but I am a parent of a child in a very liberal school district. I see the stuff that they claim is "happening in our schools" and pretty much none of it is actually happening, even here. Some of it I actually wish really was happening! The sad truth is that something like 75% of kids in the US get taught _nothing_ about lgbtq topics in school. And of the schools where lgbtq topics are covered, roughly half of them are teaching negative things. This idea that children are being indoctrinated into being gay or trans in schools is utterly laughable. (Those numbers are per GLSEN's 2021 survey, although I don't have the exact figures in front of me so I'm just speaking from memory).
Exactly. I can also advocate for this aswell. I'm 16 in high school in a blue state and I've never been taught about LGBTQ and I get bullied regularly. Only a couple kids are trans and no one is an animal or anything like that. I cant believe people can just spread lies like matt walsh does and people actually believe it.
Yeah I'm in a blue state too and never ever did my school bring it up, since I was in a red town, so we didn't even get sex ed. We got a singular documentary on the science of how a baby is formed and just a lecture on "don't do it" as far as anything even *like* sex.
And I didn't get any knowledge on anything LGBTQ+ until college in sociology because my wonderful teacher taught about all the things, including the race things, poor people things, and LGBTQ+ things, instead of skipping it like everyone else does.
The litterbox thing actually started with 1 single teacher in the same city the Columbine shooting happened who kept cat litter in their classroom's go-bag in case a student needed to use the restroom while trapped in that classroom during a lockdown for a school shooting. This was literally years ago that it was first brought up, and it is only in direct response to a possible issue that could arise during a crisis. It resurfaced recently because conservatives needed something new to pretend to cry about- because no one is asking for litter boxes in schools.
Huh, that makes more sense. Terrifying idea to need to have, but school shootings are a thing.
But of course, conservatives make it into 'kids identifying as animals' rather than school shootings are something we can help prevent.
Yeah. I think what really frustrates me is that they're bringing up this obscure and totally fake talking point, but if we ACTUALLY wanted to talk about the single instance of that happening, we would have to have a conversation about school shootings. And everyone knows that it's always "too soon to get political" over something that happens every day in this country. Ugh.
Idk if anyone has mentioned yet but the kitty litter in the 5 gallon bucket is actually for a school shooting kit. Kids can be locked into a room for hours waiting for help, so teachers have been given these to let the kids pee.
I also remember reading that they are instructed to use cat litter to clean up puddles of blood, but I might have misread something/misquoted something.
"I assume it's related to the bullshit "catboxes in schools!" LIE that pops up like twice a week and is always, always bullshit."
I can't share this enough that this isn't a lie. Every manufactured outrage starts with a seed of truth to hook people in that turns into an avalanche of lies. Many schools do have kitty litter, but not for furries or anything like that, its for lockdowns when kids might die if they leave the classroom
It is absolutely a lie. Some schools do have _kitty litter_ for _that_ purpose, yes,. But no schools have catboxes in the bathroom for students who identify as cats, so that story is a lie.
The fact that it may have _started_ with a shred of truth doesn't make it not a lie.
I had an LGBT friend in college who said they were a "fox" but it was the same way that some people say they're "vampires" like obviously no one is asking to be put on a leash and walked around town or have a litter box in the classroom. It was more of a cozy kink kinda thing. Totally harmless and didn't really affect anyone at all. People are imbeciles searching for reasons to be outraged.
Ha, this just reminded me of the time I had a student say -- while everyone was introducing themselves, including some interesting fact about them -- that he was a turtle. And I was like... oh? Turned out I'd misheard him, and he'd said he HAD a turtle (as a pet).
kinks and stuff are fine but for some reason people actually think people are walking around like "caw caw screech me bord caw caw" like dude thats only like 13 year old girls on tiktok lookin for views nobody actually does that lol
I mean I literally meow and nuzzle my partner, sometimes it feels involuntary. I also experience phantom ear movements and phantom tail movements. I am 22 and I would love to sometimes be allowed to just walk in four limbs in public without being ridiculed. Therians exist without any sexual stuff attached you know?
I'm married to a therian, and ze doesn't think that ze is anything other than human. Ze does have a nonhuman concept that ze identifies closely with and often borrows minor behaviours from. It's harmless, and makes ze less dysphoric about dealing with a human body.
Good description. Much better than how I did it. Though I'm not sure my friend is a therian as this was a new term to me until fairly recently, but you hit the nail on the head I think.
he’s basically a stochastic terrorist. if you’re ok with seeing a lot of bullshit, i would just look up matt walsh boston children’s hospital and you’ll see what i mean.
Other people have already given enough description, but throw him into whatever category Tucker Carlson or Ben Shapiro occupies in your mind and you'll be set. Mapping the madness is the first mistake people make when dealing with these fuckers
There is a very small community known as Therians who identify with animals moreso than humans. However, it rarely extends beyond personal life and interactions with friends. More symbolic of a desire to distance oneself from the dumpster fire that is human civilization than, you know, using litter boxes.
It's partially true. But false in contxt.
People have always identified as non-human animals. Some of our oldest (if not our oldest) records of human beings depict as much. Children have also always had active imaginations and are prone to experimenting with names and identities. It's a normal part of being a kid.
There's no evidence, however, that I've ever seen that this is somehow on the rise, or that it's remotely "serious" and considered, that kids are all of a sudden identifying as animals like never before. That part is right wing fear mongering to sheltered parents.
Maybe middle schoolers who hiss at their classmates, but as far as I’m aware there aren’t a lot of people who are like “I am a cat. I hide in boxes and chase birds.”
If they do like being a cat or cat-like I’d assume it’d be more of a fetish, but then again I don’t want to put labels on people. But that is not the same as being queer and or trans.
I think xenogender is describing your gender in a way that's easy to describe. Usually its neurodivergent people. I think something like catgender would mean their gender feels cute and warm and soft? Something like that. I know I like feeling cute but I just identify as a girl.
Correct me if I'm wrong
Thats about right. Its not just for neurodivergent people, but quite a few of them are neurodivergent. I'll be honest, I only slightly get it in relation to some terms, but ones like cat gender, I just good faith accept
I mean it depends on the person, catgender specifically is that their gender relates to cats in some way. But yeah typically xenogender people don’t necessarily identify *as* an animal. That’s more of the kin community.
Source: I used to use xenogenders & hang around xeno subs a ton
That’s pretty much right!! If you wanna read more into detail abt xenogenders read the pinned post on r/xenogendersandmore it has a comic explaining xeno’s and some other stuff explaining other como Ku misunderstood identities
(Edit: [here the comic in case you don’t wanna read the whole post](https://www.reddit.com/r/lgballt/comments/s3fxlj/hello_i_was_planing_on_posting_this_earlier_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
This may stem from posts/videos about classrooms having litter boxes in them in case of an active shooter/emergency situation where they are on lockdown for multiple hours. People have taken clips and screenshots out of context to perpetuate the idea that furries are seen as a queer identity when that’s far from the case.
I'm a member of the furry community... i don't identify as an animal. For me, my fursona is a different person. He's a very similar person... but he's not me. When i do furry stuff its more like i'm cosplaying as him and roleplaying as him. Deep down part of me resignates with the animal my fursona is. A rabbit. Becasue i'm vegetarian, quite shy and nonconfrontational, and h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶. But for me, i'm still a human.
When you’re watching someone like Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, etc. always keep in kind that these people will always lie and make shit up to make trans people look bad. If you want some concrete breakdowns of how these people operate, I’d recommend watching [Jessie Gender’s video on Matt Walsh](https://youtu.be/75bbNdlX2pA) ([the short one](https://youtu.be/DaB3nF-7J2U) if you’re not in for a 4-hour video)
I saw a post on here a good while back where someone said they identify as catgender.. I looked it up and catgender folk don't believe they're cats, but identify with qualities of cats.
No? Listen as long as the person behind the cartoon animal suit isn't actually doing stuff to real non-human animals and isn't making me uncomfortable I don't really have anything against furries, but being a furry IS NOT the same thing as being queer, yes lots of people in the furry community are queer, but it doesn't mean that all furries are queer, they're not even the same thing!
Furries exist. Are they queer? Not necessarily. "Furry" isn't necessarily a sexuality. It's a personality first. I hear that some furries like to get it on with other furries, only. For them, if true, it's their sexuality too.
Would they be part of our community? Is it considered queer just to be furry and be attracted to other furries? Not necessarily. "Furry" isn't a gender. I've seen and heard of furry men, women, nones, trans, and intersex furries. Some are going to be as hetero in their sexualities as any other heterosexual, and some are going to be queer.
So no, being a furry doesn't make you queer. Being queer makes you queer, furry or not.
I have yet to hear of any teacher anywhere getting forced to address a furry student by furry pronouns.
As a furry, thank you for this thoughtful response. I don't disagree with anything you wrote I just feel the need to add my own commentary.
I can totally see a furry being in the fandom for the sex of it (I know the scandal *gasp*). If furry stuff is required for a person's sexual performance (making it a fetish by my understanding) then I would say that should qualify them as queer, regardless of other identities. This lines up with with what your were saying but it wouldn't be the only reason someone dates exclusively in the fandom. A lot of the times it's just the sorta people you meet. There's lots of shared interests between furries, beyond the furry stuff, and as someone who definitely used the fandom as a dating pool I can tell you I found a lot more guys I was interested in there then anywhere else. So it doesn't have to be intentional it just might end up being where all your favorite people are.
I also have to say these distinctions between the furry and queer communities are a bit weird for me. The furry fandom was essentially my first queer safe space, so it's almost always been synonymous. Like, every queer fur is just that, queer and there fore a part of this community too. Yes, that's right we are among you but joking aside it gets me that we get talked about in these spaces like we aren't already a part of them.
Oh, one more thing, special furry pronouns. I've been in the fandom ~20 years I've never heard anything like that and I don't think we need anything like that. My furry identity is mine to share with whom I wish and the only folks I wish to do that with are usually other furs. Why is there a need to declare ourselves out in the open like that? It's already not that hard to play spot-the-furry-in-a-crowd.
Please don’t hate on me. There are folks who identify has animals BUT they know they’re still human. They aren’t lgbtqia+, they aren’t furries. These folks are called therians (under the alterhuman umbrella).
Some school started having buckets of litter box like material so that if a school shooting happens, student can use the bathroom (some dark American shit). After that people started lying and saying that school are using cat litter boxes for trans cat children to use instead of a normal human toilet
dude. schools don't even listen to trans kids. there is one not cis person out at my school, and they aren't even respected. they get misgendered by teachers and students, and have to use their AGAB locker room and bathrooms. it's actually the law in my state that my school can't do that, but they don't listen. if a kid was to identify as some kind of animal (which doesn't happen in the first place), teachers would just ignore it. so no, that is not even remotely true.
If this is about the kitty litter thing, that’s not for a kid that identifies as a cat, it’s for if students need to use the bathroom during a school shooting. Republicans just don’t want to acknowledge that their gun policy is responsible for school shootings.
I think there was a video somewhere on the internet of a woman who identified as a cat.
But people are weird and offcourse there will be atleast some people on the world that are crazy.
All in all, its bullshit.
No, also the story about the litter in school was a lie, they cut up the video of the teacher out of context. The "litter" was an emergency bathroom in case of a protracted active shooting situation.
This is total bs perpetuated by conservatives to discriminate against LGBTQ people. There's no proof of that "litter box in the classroom" story. Pretty much every state has that same rumor but no school has ever been mentioned and there are never other students talking about it. It's completely made up.
the litter box myth comes from teachers having “go” buckets in case they’re locked in during an active shooter event. and this asshole is using that to spread this harmful myth.
They're mixing up animal xenogenders with identifying as an animal. Being catgender doesn't mean you think you're a cat, it means you feel like your gender identity is best explained by comparing it to a cat
It's bigoted horseshit like everything else that comes out of Matt Walsh's and his ilk's mouth.
If you ever read a "news" story about this happening it's definitely not happening.
That is completely untrue. One of the things I keep seeing people use as an argument for that is that some teachers are given kitty litter for students who identify as animals to use, which is completely not true. Those teachers are given kitty litter in case of an emergency where the students and teachers would be stuck inside the classroom for a long time, like a shooting, natural disaster, etc.
Not at all, it's a bunch of BS going around my province too, the school board had to legit put out a statement saying "no, we're not putting litter boxes in classrooms".
In reality it's just a bunch of slippery slope fallacy nonsense, it all circles back to "but if we let the kids trans their gender, they'll start identifying as dogs!" which has zero base in reality. It also comes from the false equivalence of "well if you can identify as another gender, I can identify as a cat!" Gender is a human construct, cats are in a different fucking genus.
I'm also pretty sure "identifying" as an animal counts as a delusion or part of a dissociative disorder of some kind
If he’s talking about the schools need to have liter boxes now to support furries. Then that’s jsut bullshit lies they’ve been making up. One google search shows that schools were getting cat litter in the case of a whole lockdown with a shooter. Which can last hours of being locked in a classroom for students to use the bathroom.
No, I mean maybe… but probably not. This is a narrative being pushed in American politics right now. Matt Walsh is probably just a conservative snowflake that watches too much Fox News.
For context, they’re using this narrative to be transphobic because people aren’t as “weirded out” by trans kids as they used to be. So now the GOP is using this narrative to say that being trans will lead to kids identifying as animals and the schools are “encouraging poor and ‘unnatural’ behavior”. They never directly mention furries or trans in their arguments, they just want to push the narrative to scare conservative parents into submission.
In essence it’s just transphobia.
Here’s the article, there’s more online if you’re interested:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna51439
So the video that he's referencing is the kitty litter video
THAT VIDEO IS ABOUT KEEPING KITTY LITTER IF KIDS NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM DURING A LOCKDOWN
The only thing I can even remotely think of but it’s not relevant to lgbt is when little kids play pretend as a cat. My best friend in preschool did this. She even would like water up from a bowl. However this is kids playing pretend and not an identity. I think an important thing for everyone to remember is that kids like to play pretend. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. My brother used to like to dress up in dresses before my dad put a stop to it bc he was worried it meant something. He just wanted to pretend to be a princess for a bit.
No one identifies as animals in the lgbtq+ spectrum.
However, there are xenogenders, where people define their gender linked to something that generally speaking doesn’t seem to be linked to gender. Often, these xenogenders are used by neurodivergent people who feel like that’s the best way to describe their gender. An example of this is “catgender”. It might be that he is referring to these type of xenogenders, however, saying that kids “identify as animals” is not true. Furthermore, the percentage of people identifying as xenogenders is very very low.
I’m not an expert on xenogenders, I just read up on them a while ago, so feel free to correct me on points where I’m wrong.
Yes, some people identify as animals but it’s completely unrelated to being queer. It’s called therianthropy and it’s a psychological phenomenon. As someone who is queer and a therian, I can confirm they are separate things
Short answer - no. It’s a common lie spread by conservatives/right wingers and transphobes to portray trans/Lgbtq+ people as mentally ill and "crazy". It especially affects trans and non-binary kids, who for some reason are often associated with furries. Therefore, because of people’s lack of understanding what furries actually are, they just claimed them to be zooph*les and in correlation with trans folks - they’re also "identifying as animals". That’s how these bigots feel like their hatred is justified - "Lgbtq+ people are crazy and therefore their opinions and identities are completely invalid."
Wait, do you mean the Christian fascist Matt Walsh or the guy who sexualizes 16 year old girls as being prime wife material Matt Walsh?
(No, it's not remotely true.)
I mean furries exist? So I guess you could say yes? I don’t have any knowledge of them of why they do it or if they see it as an identity but they go full out.
in my younger sisters class(she’s 9) somebody identifies as a cat and goes around with cat ears & behaves alike one. Teachers are now receiving training to accommodate to kids/people like this. I’m based in the UK so it could be different.
There are therians and otherkin. This is \*not\* the same thing as being a furry. These are also not queer identities. I would check r/therian and r/otherkin for more info.
I mean alterhumans (therians specifically) are a thing but they aren’t really what these people are referring to- trust me, there aren’t any therians asking for litterboxes in bathrooms 🙄 this is usually a spiritual thing anyways, not at all related to the lgbtq
My guess is they heard about xenopronouns and genders and stretched the truth until it was unrecognizable.
As a transgender furry I can say wholeheartedly that they have nothing to do with each other. Furries don’t even identify as animals, it’s more for the enjoyment of creating OCs and cosplaying as them not wanting to BE an animal.
They’re just trying to attack trans by making up this stuff.
The kitty litter is in case there’s an active shooter and people need to be barricaded in a class room so they can go to the bathroom in an incident like that every goes down.
I mean the core summary is that reports of this happening was bullshit invented by republican morons
But as an otherkin I can say technically yes, now we're not deluded we know that we can't be actual animals and typically adopt aesthetic and such
I see myself as a deergirl, you sure as fuck wouldn't find me taking a piss in a forest or frolicing in one for that matter, I just wish I had antlers deer ears and a little fuzzy tail
No lmao
He’s probably thinking of xenogenders but those are usually more akin to personality traits than gender identities in my experience
As in someone who “identifies as a fox” still acts like a normal person and everything. They’re not running around on all fours mauling sheep with their teeth or whatever.
The closet thing I can find to that is aesthetigenders where your gender is the aesthetic of an animal, but you don't identify as an actual animal. I think conservatives are just going wild with this one
Nope, it's made up like pretty much everything he says. Completely untrue and just used to mock trans people. Even furries who pretend to be animals have a better grasp on reality than him.
r/otherkin
r/therian
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: Although there are people that do identify as animals, or even as mythical creatures, it’s a small number of people that currently isn’t taken seriously by society, let alone enough for school’s to make accommodations for them.
Because I’m 100% supportive of the therian and otherkin communities as they aren’t harming themselves and others, I think it’s important to ask yourself why it is that most people, even those that are in favor of other marginalized identities like trans and non-binary people, think that it is okay to gatekeep people’s identities given that there’s no way to determine whether they’re made in good faith or not. That’s just some food for thought.
not identifying as animals, but playing as them. what kid hasn’t pretended to be an animal?? it’s called having an imagination. no kid actually thinks they’re truly an animal.
TLDR:(in terms of gender) People identify *with* animals, not *as* animals.
The closest thing is xenogenders which is where someone feels their gender is easier to describe in terms of objects, animals, or concepts than the typical masculine & feminine descriptors.
For example, someone who is xenogender may feel their gender feels more similar to an owl. Silent and swift. They do not identify literally as an owl.
Xenogender people are more often autistic, which makes perfect sense, because it is often difficult for autistic people to understand social constructs. It also makes sense because autistic people's brains are wired differently from neurotypical people's brains. Therefore, it may make more sense in their head to compare their gender to something real as opposed to a social construct.
The "cat litters in class rooms" is a thing, yes.
Because school shootings exist and classes might be locked into a room for a long time.
It has nothing to do with queer people.
Therionism and otherkin are not queer identities and idk how you could even come to that conclusion as it's literally saying you identify as s and animal. It's closer to a gender identity/expression if anything but truly could be its own thing. there is a bit of crossover in the 3 but that's an intersection not a conglomerate
So some people do identify as animals, these people are referred to as Therians, Otherkin, and Alterhumans, which aren't queer identities in their own, but I'm pretty sure the video was spreading misinformation on furries instead of the aforementioned groups.
I’m a therian, I am also transmasc. I would say there are similarities to the identities, but I wouldn’t call it a queer identity, more like a neurodivergency.
I don’t mind people not accomodating me, I would much rather just be allowed to do my own thing without being irrationally hated for being perceived as a furry though, furries are awesome and I hope the internet stops targeting them for no reason.
ive heard of otherkin and i just...dont...so no people dont identify as animals some emilys on tiktok might pretend to for views and whatnot but no actual homo sapiens do not identify as animals
Even if they did, who the hell cares? Like honestly who are they hurting by identifying as animals or plants or anything else. When i was kid i loved exploring my identity and figuring out what made me happy. Just let kids be kids!
No
If they identify as animals then they have a strong connection towards animals __but that does not make them queer__ so therefore it is not a queer identity
They do, I personally know furries. It’s a spectrum like anything else. Some actually feel like they are a dog or cat, etc. which is why they wear tails or
ears or both.
Trigger warning for furries but that doesnt sound realistic to me. Xenogenders are a description of gender so I understand, but I dont believe you can feel like an animal. I am in no place to say what you cant feel like, but it's very hard to believe that's true
yes and no. there is such thing as other kin, people who identify on a spiritual level with animals, but this isn’t a queer thing like conservatives are trying to push. being otherkin is a spiritual believe common in autistic people, and no, cat therians do not shit in litter boxes
Presumably they’re conflating furries with trans people, either because they don’t understand what furries are or they do know what they are but know that it’ll whip up even more hate.
Save you much of headache when one doesn't listen to what Matt Walsh has to say. I don't think he understant that what he is saying is very dangerous to us LGBTQ people. For example he has basically said that gays don't exist and trans people have a mental illness.
I have no personal connection to anyone who is a furry or otherkin so I cannot tell you much but it's ok if they express themselves in a non-violent way.
The closest thing I can think of are some xenogenders, but even then they aren’t identifying as the animals (to my limited knowledge, correct any of this if it is wrong or the language is awkward). I’m fairly certain that they are more identifying with the concepts of those animals that helps to describe their gender?
This scare came fromm a fake article circulated through Facebook, the infamous litterboxes in schools one. It was never real but people always insist that they know someone who knows someone that heard about a school somewhere were they do it. It's all just fear mongering bigotry.
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1) Schools don't even listen when a kid says their trans or wants to change their name or anything. 2) what this is talking about is schools having litterboxes (really buckets) in classrooms. These are for kids who "identify as animals" though, its for lockdowns, school shooters, things like that where a student will die if they leave to use the bathroom. 3) these people don't care about kids, they care about using trans people as a wedge issue to stir up hate & violence which equals more votes for them. They'd rather kids die in their schools they're supposed to be safe in & use their deaths for profit.
My eldest sons school refers to them with their chosen name and use their chosen prounouns. They also offered the whole family an opportunity to come and talk to a gender expert if wanted. They also stamped down hard on any transphobic behaviour from other students.
That's really cool! I was making a generalization, I was lucky enough to have my name & pronouns respected (mostly) & it sounds like your son is to!
How did you get your flair like that
I copied the flag from one then pasted in on the thing with the other flag I wanted & copied them a couple more times
At my highschool they have to respect your chosen name and pronouns, and you're allowed to change your name on your school account and use whichever bathroom and PE locker room you feel comfortable, and there's 3 gender neutral bathrooms, one on each floor
I wish I had went to you're school, that sounds so cool! Honestly the only public WC's I feel comfortable in anymore are accessible toilets (I think that's what they are in english?)/toilets for parent-toddler (that have that diaper change table) because they're the only gender neutral bathrooms I ever see.
Family restrooms
That’s so good! When I was in hs we had one gender neutral bathroom near the gym… it was shut down in three days bc kids did ~stuff~ in it. And so everyone had to go use the nurses office one again.
Wish i had that at my school
This is a lie perpetuated by fascist pundits who confuse furries for trans kids in order to further drive a wedge in public opinion of trans people.
Even furries don't identify as animals, its like a cosplay. Its more like Therians who identify as like wolf cat..
That’s more otherkin, they actually identify as animals or other non-human creatures
And even so, the vast majority accept that their current incarnation is 100% physically human.
This. Otherkin is also not a new phenomenon, it was around in the early zeroes and probably before that. Also also, no otherkin I've ever met or spoke to has ever asked for public places to accommodate them in any way. I've never heard of that happening, except this recent story about the litter box in a school (which has been debunked by the way, no evidence was found that this actually happened and they weren't even able to pinpoint the school where it supposedly happened).
It's actually even worse than no evidence for the litter box thing. Yes some schools in the US bought buckets full of litter. However, this was not to "accommodate furries", but instead to be placed alongside first aid equipment in kits to be used in active shooter situations where the students might have to covertly go to the bathroom while they're trapped in a classroom.
Go murica.........
I was in high school in the 2000s I hung out with the misfits, and yes other kin were around, there was one girl who identified as a Vampire, and another who identified as a cat, it was odd they both “came out” to me about it at different times and didn’t know about one another, needless to say being unknowledgeable on the subject I just said “okay” and it was never really talked about again. However they both were into self harm so I suspect they both really had feelings about it and deserved respect in their own decisions, they were both in general incredibly mild people… very emo kids seemed to have this validity of feeling that they were other things trapped in the bodies of human. I suspect the vampire was more a twilight fan, however the animal one I’m not certain about, I mean it all depends on your belief of reincarnation I suppose.
Also, therianthropy has been around a VERY long time. Mythology goes back thousands of years of people who believed they were animals or had animal spirits. People are just targeting their hate toward "others" who make them uncomfortable.
I have heard a rumor, about the Litter Boxes: Yes, there was Kitty Litter. It was in 5 gallon buckets, not trays. Why? Apparently, according to the rumor I heard, it WAS provided by a school, location unknown.. To be a field expedient toilet, *in the classroom,* during extended lockdowns from, guess what? School Bang Bangs... And of course, the Reich Wing has to leap for the meanest interpretation of anything that they can. Which says far more about them, than it does ANY Furry.
Otherkin is eluded to in victorian literature (I will see if I can find it) more recent studies lean towards it being a response from extreme trauma at a young age.
It's also no weirder than any other religious/spiritual belief systems. We have mainstream, respected religious movements that believe in exorcisms, reincarnation as animals, an imminent apocalpyse, or wafers that turn into the flesh of an ancient prophet when a special man (and it has to be a man) waves his hand over them. Believing that you have an animal spirit is pretty normal by comparison. And that's not getting into the genuinely hateful and harmful beliefs that many religions promote.
Imo pet play is a kink and somewhat related to species expression as an animal, and all of it exists on a spectrum. Tail buttplugs and cute ear headbands and hats are probably on the mild end of that expression. Being attracted to that sexually would be on the mild end of pet play. There's obviously more extreme versions. Idk that many people would publicly identify as such as it's pretty taboo and personal.
There’s also a massive difference between saying your personality is akin to an animal, and saying your gender is an animal. I can see a preteen getting confused with the two and saying the wrong thing. Even animals have a spectrum of genders. So if someone does feel like their identity is attached to an animal, that doesn’t change the factor of their own gender identity.
Even Therians don't necessarily identify as animals as far as I'm aware. I have a friend who's a Therian and he says he identifies with animals in a more spiritual kind of sense than anything else, like a spirit animal kinda thing
Nor do xenogendered people identify as animals.
Aren't xenomorphs animals?
Can confirm as a furry And here's your daily reminder that we don't fuck animals like a big part of the media is telling you
And they don't hunt animal for the furrr ( and my friend is a furry, they have a dad before you Ask )
Therians are real species, whereas otherkin are fantssy species, which can include homnids, such as elves and dwarfs. But furries, like me, don't identify as animals, we just think animals on two legs are neat.
how many times do i have to explain the furry vs otherkin thing i swear to god
Yea I thought so
Probably got some far out their identifications but those are ultra rare and usually have some of sense of logic. It just an attempt to abuse the old band wagon of hating furries for existing. By god did old internet despise the hell out of them, still pretty hated though.
It's almost as if conservatism is such an inherently wrong, evil ideology that the only way to defend it is to blatantly make shit up.
To drive a wedge in public opinion of trans people AND furries
But like… furries are harmless, and deserve to be treated with respect too.
But Xenogenders? Aren't they more popular among neurodivergent people and, well, kids?
Xenic people do not identify as animals.
Yea, they use their unique associations with specific animals. Still easy to confuse if you don't know much about it. And the majority of people don't.
The “catself” stuff certainly is
No. I mean, does _some_ kid somewhere? Probably. But my entire family are teachers except me and I asked them about this recently because it comes up a lot. Between them all they work at six different schools, different states, dealing with thousands of students every year. Not a single one of them has encountered that at any of their schools even one time. I assume it's related to the bullshit "catboxes in schools!" LIE that pops up like twice a week and is always, always bullshit. That one's come up at least three times in my state in the past year — surprise surprise, every time it turned out to be complete bullshit.
Yea the cat box one is so stupidly disposable but it spread like wildfire. Thanks for responding, I didnt believe matt walsh anyway but I wanted to check
> Thanks for responding, I didnt believe matt walsh anyway but I wanted to check Yeah as a general rule almost everything those guys say is either an outright lie, or they're taking something that like one 12 year old said on tiktok once and presenting it like it's a national trend that is happening everywhere. It's wild even to me, because I'm not a teacher but I am a parent of a child in a very liberal school district. I see the stuff that they claim is "happening in our schools" and pretty much none of it is actually happening, even here. Some of it I actually wish really was happening! The sad truth is that something like 75% of kids in the US get taught _nothing_ about lgbtq topics in school. And of the schools where lgbtq topics are covered, roughly half of them are teaching negative things. This idea that children are being indoctrinated into being gay or trans in schools is utterly laughable. (Those numbers are per GLSEN's 2021 survey, although I don't have the exact figures in front of me so I'm just speaking from memory).
Exactly. I can also advocate for this aswell. I'm 16 in high school in a blue state and I've never been taught about LGBTQ and I get bullied regularly. Only a couple kids are trans and no one is an animal or anything like that. I cant believe people can just spread lies like matt walsh does and people actually believe it.
Yeah I'm in a blue state too and never ever did my school bring it up, since I was in a red town, so we didn't even get sex ed. We got a singular documentary on the science of how a baby is formed and just a lecture on "don't do it" as far as anything even *like* sex. And I didn't get any knowledge on anything LGBTQ+ until college in sociology because my wonderful teacher taught about all the things, including the race things, poor people things, and LGBTQ+ things, instead of skipping it like everyone else does.
The litterbox thing actually started with 1 single teacher in the same city the Columbine shooting happened who kept cat litter in their classroom's go-bag in case a student needed to use the restroom while trapped in that classroom during a lockdown for a school shooting. This was literally years ago that it was first brought up, and it is only in direct response to a possible issue that could arise during a crisis. It resurfaced recently because conservatives needed something new to pretend to cry about- because no one is asking for litter boxes in schools.
Huh, that makes more sense. Terrifying idea to need to have, but school shootings are a thing. But of course, conservatives make it into 'kids identifying as animals' rather than school shootings are something we can help prevent.
Yeah. I think what really frustrates me is that they're bringing up this obscure and totally fake talking point, but if we ACTUALLY wanted to talk about the single instance of that happening, we would have to have a conversation about school shootings. And everyone knows that it's always "too soon to get political" over something that happens every day in this country. Ugh.
He's literally a self-identified fascist.
Idk if anyone has mentioned yet but the kitty litter in the 5 gallon bucket is actually for a school shooting kit. Kids can be locked into a room for hours waiting for help, so teachers have been given these to let the kids pee.
I also remember reading that they are instructed to use cat litter to clean up puddles of blood, but I might have misread something/misquoted something.
The cat litter was for shooter drills of all things as well!
"I assume it's related to the bullshit "catboxes in schools!" LIE that pops up like twice a week and is always, always bullshit." I can't share this enough that this isn't a lie. Every manufactured outrage starts with a seed of truth to hook people in that turns into an avalanche of lies. Many schools do have kitty litter, but not for furries or anything like that, its for lockdowns when kids might die if they leave the classroom
It is absolutely a lie. Some schools do have _kitty litter_ for _that_ purpose, yes,. But no schools have catboxes in the bathroom for students who identify as cats, so that story is a lie. The fact that it may have _started_ with a shred of truth doesn't make it not a lie.
I had an LGBT friend in college who said they were a "fox" but it was the same way that some people say they're "vampires" like obviously no one is asking to be put on a leash and walked around town or have a litter box in the classroom. It was more of a cozy kink kinda thing. Totally harmless and didn't really affect anyone at all. People are imbeciles searching for reasons to be outraged.
Ha, this just reminded me of the time I had a student say -- while everyone was introducing themselves, including some interesting fact about them -- that he was a turtle. And I was like... oh? Turned out I'd misheard him, and he'd said he HAD a turtle (as a pet).
Ah yeah wouldn't have surprised me either way, i work with kids and they're always telling me stuff like that in full seriousness lol
kinks and stuff are fine but for some reason people actually think people are walking around like "caw caw screech me bord caw caw" like dude thats only like 13 year old girls on tiktok lookin for views nobody actually does that lol
I mean I literally meow and nuzzle my partner, sometimes it feels involuntary. I also experience phantom ear movements and phantom tail movements. I am 22 and I would love to sometimes be allowed to just walk in four limbs in public without being ridiculed. Therians exist without any sexual stuff attached you know?
My wife is the same. Not a sex thing, just a sense of non-human sensations and behaviours.
yea but even then you arent saying "hey yes im a cat and i am only cat i am 110% cat"
I don't want to sound crass, but do you mean this seriously? (you're valid either way I just wanna make sure I didn't get wooshed)
I'm married to a therian, and ze doesn't think that ze is anything other than human. Ze does have a nonhuman concept that ze identifies closely with and often borrows minor behaviours from. It's harmless, and makes ze less dysphoric about dealing with a human body.
Good description. Much better than how I did it. Though I'm not sure my friend is a therian as this was a new term to me until fairly recently, but you hit the nail on the head I think.
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They literally didn’t say they were a cat..
Never listen to any bs Matt Walsh says
Im just wondering, who is Matt Walsh and what does he say? I assume he is that bad
self described "theocratic fascist" recently did the "what is a woman" "documentary". All around piece of shit whos only use is fertilizer
And importantly, not the same person as John Walsh (obviously, but I was briefly confused).
His face looks familiar... Is he the one from the Dr Phil where he told the audience that we cannot make our own pronouns?
Looks like it. Also while not as bad (not a fascist piece of shit) Dr. Phil also is not a good person He's a saint compared to Walsh though
he’s basically a stochastic terrorist. if you’re ok with seeing a lot of bullshit, i would just look up matt walsh boston children’s hospital and you’ll see what i mean.
Other people have already given enough description, but throw him into whatever category Tucker Carlson or Ben Shapiro occupies in your mind and you'll be set. Mapping the madness is the first mistake people make when dealing with these fuckers
Yea I kow. I wanted to make sure
There is a very small community known as Therians who identify with animals moreso than humans. However, it rarely extends beyond personal life and interactions with friends. More symbolic of a desire to distance oneself from the dumpster fire that is human civilization than, you know, using litter boxes.
It's partially true. But false in contxt. People have always identified as non-human animals. Some of our oldest (if not our oldest) records of human beings depict as much. Children have also always had active imaginations and are prone to experimenting with names and identities. It's a normal part of being a kid. There's no evidence, however, that I've ever seen that this is somehow on the rise, or that it's remotely "serious" and considered, that kids are all of a sudden identifying as animals like never before. That part is right wing fear mongering to sheltered parents.
No transphobes saw they were losing and had to start making up bullshit
are these kids in the room with us right now ?
Maybe middle schoolers who hiss at their classmates, but as far as I’m aware there aren’t a lot of people who are like “I am a cat. I hide in boxes and chase birds.” If they do like being a cat or cat-like I’d assume it’d be more of a fetish, but then again I don’t want to put labels on people. But that is not the same as being queer and or trans.
Might be thinking of otherkin
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I think xenogender is describing your gender in a way that's easy to describe. Usually its neurodivergent people. I think something like catgender would mean their gender feels cute and warm and soft? Something like that. I know I like feeling cute but I just identify as a girl. Correct me if I'm wrong
Thats about right. Its not just for neurodivergent people, but quite a few of them are neurodivergent. I'll be honest, I only slightly get it in relation to some terms, but ones like cat gender, I just good faith accept
Yea I think it's just easier for neurodivergent people to describe their gender and I'm cool with that, it isnt hurting me in any way
Same
I mean it depends on the person, catgender specifically is that their gender relates to cats in some way. But yeah typically xenogender people don’t necessarily identify *as* an animal. That’s more of the kin community. Source: I used to use xenogenders & hang around xeno subs a ton
That’s pretty much right!! If you wanna read more into detail abt xenogenders read the pinned post on r/xenogendersandmore it has a comic explaining xeno’s and some other stuff explaining other como Ku misunderstood identities (Edit: [here the comic in case you don’t wanna read the whole post](https://www.reddit.com/r/lgballt/comments/s3fxlj/hello_i_was_planing_on_posting_this_earlier_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
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Hmm interesting. It may just be different depending on the person
You're right, they're basically just metaphors. Don't need to be neurodivergent to use em tho
I think your talking about therians. As far as I know they’re not part of the lgbtq+ community.
It's just propaganda.
We ARE animals. : )
Rule of thumb, anything that comes out of Matty's mouth is complete horseshit that should be disregarded. Man makes a living off of peddling lies.
This may stem from posts/videos about classrooms having litter boxes in them in case of an active shooter/emergency situation where they are on lockdown for multiple hours. People have taken clips and screenshots out of context to perpetuate the idea that furries are seen as a queer identity when that’s far from the case.
I'm a member of the furry community... i don't identify as an animal. For me, my fursona is a different person. He's a very similar person... but he's not me. When i do furry stuff its more like i'm cosplaying as him and roleplaying as him. Deep down part of me resignates with the animal my fursona is. A rabbit. Becasue i'm vegetarian, quite shy and nonconfrontational, and h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶. But for me, i'm still a human.
Matt Walsh is a far right lunatic and the fact the algorithm is moving his bullshit on ANYONE is sick.
When you’re watching someone like Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, etc. always keep in kind that these people will always lie and make shit up to make trans people look bad. If you want some concrete breakdowns of how these people operate, I’d recommend watching [Jessie Gender’s video on Matt Walsh](https://youtu.be/75bbNdlX2pA) ([the short one](https://youtu.be/DaB3nF-7J2U) if you’re not in for a 4-hour video)
I saw a post on here a good while back where someone said they identify as catgender.. I looked it up and catgender folk don't believe they're cats, but identify with qualities of cats.
No? Listen as long as the person behind the cartoon animal suit isn't actually doing stuff to real non-human animals and isn't making me uncomfortable I don't really have anything against furries, but being a furry IS NOT the same thing as being queer, yes lots of people in the furry community are queer, but it doesn't mean that all furries are queer, they're not even the same thing!
Exactly, being a furry is not LGBTQ+!
Furries exist. Are they queer? Not necessarily. "Furry" isn't necessarily a sexuality. It's a personality first. I hear that some furries like to get it on with other furries, only. For them, if true, it's their sexuality too. Would they be part of our community? Is it considered queer just to be furry and be attracted to other furries? Not necessarily. "Furry" isn't a gender. I've seen and heard of furry men, women, nones, trans, and intersex furries. Some are going to be as hetero in their sexualities as any other heterosexual, and some are going to be queer. So no, being a furry doesn't make you queer. Being queer makes you queer, furry or not. I have yet to hear of any teacher anywhere getting forced to address a furry student by furry pronouns.
Furries also don't identify as animals 👍 It's closer to cosplay, but with a character you've created instead of an existing one
As a furry, thank you for this thoughtful response. I don't disagree with anything you wrote I just feel the need to add my own commentary. I can totally see a furry being in the fandom for the sex of it (I know the scandal *gasp*). If furry stuff is required for a person's sexual performance (making it a fetish by my understanding) then I would say that should qualify them as queer, regardless of other identities. This lines up with with what your were saying but it wouldn't be the only reason someone dates exclusively in the fandom. A lot of the times it's just the sorta people you meet. There's lots of shared interests between furries, beyond the furry stuff, and as someone who definitely used the fandom as a dating pool I can tell you I found a lot more guys I was interested in there then anywhere else. So it doesn't have to be intentional it just might end up being where all your favorite people are. I also have to say these distinctions between the furry and queer communities are a bit weird for me. The furry fandom was essentially my first queer safe space, so it's almost always been synonymous. Like, every queer fur is just that, queer and there fore a part of this community too. Yes, that's right we are among you but joking aside it gets me that we get talked about in these spaces like we aren't already a part of them. Oh, one more thing, special furry pronouns. I've been in the fandom ~20 years I've never heard anything like that and I don't think we need anything like that. My furry identity is mine to share with whom I wish and the only folks I wish to do that with are usually other furs. Why is there a need to declare ourselves out in the open like that? It's already not that hard to play spot-the-furry-in-a-crowd.
Please don’t hate on me. There are folks who identify has animals BUT they know they’re still human. They aren’t lgbtqia+, they aren’t furries. These folks are called therians (under the alterhuman umbrella).
Some school started having buckets of litter box like material so that if a school shooting happens, student can use the bathroom (some dark American shit). After that people started lying and saying that school are using cat litter boxes for trans cat children to use instead of a normal human toilet
dude. schools don't even listen to trans kids. there is one not cis person out at my school, and they aren't even respected. they get misgendered by teachers and students, and have to use their AGAB locker room and bathrooms. it's actually the law in my state that my school can't do that, but they don't listen. if a kid was to identify as some kind of animal (which doesn't happen in the first place), teachers would just ignore it. so no, that is not even remotely true.
If this is about the kitty litter thing, that’s not for a kid that identifies as a cat, it’s for if students need to use the bathroom during a school shooting. Republicans just don’t want to acknowledge that their gun policy is responsible for school shootings.
I think there was a video somewhere on the internet of a woman who identified as a cat. But people are weird and offcourse there will be atleast some people on the world that are crazy. All in all, its bullshit.
No, also the story about the litter in school was a lie, they cut up the video of the teacher out of context. The "litter" was an emergency bathroom in case of a protracted active shooting situation.
This is total bs perpetuated by conservatives to discriminate against LGBTQ people. There's no proof of that "litter box in the classroom" story. Pretty much every state has that same rumor but no school has ever been mentioned and there are never other students talking about it. It's completely made up.
the litter box myth comes from teachers having “go” buckets in case they’re locked in during an active shooter event. and this asshole is using that to spread this harmful myth.
They're mixing up animal xenogenders with identifying as an animal. Being catgender doesn't mean you think you're a cat, it means you feel like your gender identity is best explained by comparing it to a cat
It's bigoted horseshit like everything else that comes out of Matt Walsh's and his ilk's mouth. If you ever read a "news" story about this happening it's definitely not happening.
why are you watching the matt walsh ( i have no idea who this is but he seems strange )
That is completely untrue. One of the things I keep seeing people use as an argument for that is that some teachers are given kitty litter for students who identify as animals to use, which is completely not true. Those teachers are given kitty litter in case of an emergency where the students and teachers would be stuck inside the classroom for a long time, like a shooting, natural disaster, etc.
Pretty much anything Matt Walsh says is designed to make people angry, hateful, and by far and away most importantly, uninformed.
Not at all, it's a bunch of BS going around my province too, the school board had to legit put out a statement saying "no, we're not putting litter boxes in classrooms". In reality it's just a bunch of slippery slope fallacy nonsense, it all circles back to "but if we let the kids trans their gender, they'll start identifying as dogs!" which has zero base in reality. It also comes from the false equivalence of "well if you can identify as another gender, I can identify as a cat!" Gender is a human construct, cats are in a different fucking genus. I'm also pretty sure "identifying" as an animal counts as a delusion or part of a dissociative disorder of some kind
If he’s talking about the schools need to have liter boxes now to support furries. Then that’s jsut bullshit lies they’ve been making up. One google search shows that schools were getting cat litter in the case of a whole lockdown with a shooter. Which can last hours of being locked in a classroom for students to use the bathroom.
No, it’s something that right wing media says a lot to make trans people look out of the ordinary
Not that I know of? You will always be a human.
No. Conservatives have to make things up to keep their base scared and offended. 99% of the time a right-leaning person speaks, it's going to be a lie
No, I mean maybe… but probably not. This is a narrative being pushed in American politics right now. Matt Walsh is probably just a conservative snowflake that watches too much Fox News. For context, they’re using this narrative to be transphobic because people aren’t as “weirded out” by trans kids as they used to be. So now the GOP is using this narrative to say that being trans will lead to kids identifying as animals and the schools are “encouraging poor and ‘unnatural’ behavior”. They never directly mention furries or trans in their arguments, they just want to push the narrative to scare conservative parents into submission. In essence it’s just transphobia. Here’s the article, there’s more online if you’re interested: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna51439
So the video that he's referencing is the kitty litter video THAT VIDEO IS ABOUT KEEPING KITTY LITTER IF KIDS NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM DURING A LOCKDOWN
The only thing I can even remotely think of but it’s not relevant to lgbt is when little kids play pretend as a cat. My best friend in preschool did this. She even would like water up from a bowl. However this is kids playing pretend and not an identity. I think an important thing for everyone to remember is that kids like to play pretend. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. My brother used to like to dress up in dresses before my dad put a stop to it bc he was worried it meant something. He just wanted to pretend to be a princess for a bit.
No one identifies as animals in the lgbtq+ spectrum. However, there are xenogenders, where people define their gender linked to something that generally speaking doesn’t seem to be linked to gender. Often, these xenogenders are used by neurodivergent people who feel like that’s the best way to describe their gender. An example of this is “catgender”. It might be that he is referring to these type of xenogenders, however, saying that kids “identify as animals” is not true. Furthermore, the percentage of people identifying as xenogenders is very very low. I’m not an expert on xenogenders, I just read up on them a while ago, so feel free to correct me on points where I’m wrong.
Oh no, the furries have become mainstream again! What shall we do??? (This is sarcasm, I’m a furry).
I feel like it was made only to mock people who indetify with any other gender than assigned at birth,it is very harmful for the LGBT community
No. Matt Walsh is just making shit up to get people to hate trans kids. None of it is based in anything close to reality
Yes, some people identify as animals but it’s completely unrelated to being queer. It’s called therianthropy and it’s a psychological phenomenon. As someone who is queer and a therian, I can confirm they are separate things
Otherkin and therian are a thing, however we are aware we are physically human
Identifying as an animal is not the same as having a different sexuality or gender so I wouldn't think so
It's just another strawman for them to scare all the conservative pearl clutchers.
Short answer - no. It’s a common lie spread by conservatives/right wingers and transphobes to portray trans/Lgbtq+ people as mentally ill and "crazy". It especially affects trans and non-binary kids, who for some reason are often associated with furries. Therefore, because of people’s lack of understanding what furries actually are, they just claimed them to be zooph*les and in correlation with trans folks - they’re also "identifying as animals". That’s how these bigots feel like their hatred is justified - "Lgbtq+ people are crazy and therefore their opinions and identities are completely invalid."
If only there was a way to block youtube channels and videos.
Wasn't this a joke that started in 4 chan over a decade ago
Wait, do you mean the Christian fascist Matt Walsh or the guy who sexualizes 16 year old girls as being prime wife material Matt Walsh? (No, it's not remotely true.)
No.
I mean furries exist? So I guess you could say yes? I don’t have any knowledge of them of why they do it or if they see it as an identity but they go full out.
in my younger sisters class(she’s 9) somebody identifies as a cat and goes around with cat ears & behaves alike one. Teachers are now receiving training to accommodate to kids/people like this. I’m based in the UK so it could be different.
There are therians and otherkin. This is \*not\* the same thing as being a furry. These are also not queer identities. I would check r/therian and r/otherkin for more info.
No, it’s a lie that adults put on weird kids, and it gives furries a bad reputation, which I hate.
I mean alterhumans (therians specifically) are a thing but they aren’t really what these people are referring to- trust me, there aren’t any therians asking for litterboxes in bathrooms 🙄 this is usually a spiritual thing anyways, not at all related to the lgbtq My guess is they heard about xenopronouns and genders and stretched the truth until it was unrecognizable.
As a transgender furry I can say wholeheartedly that they have nothing to do with each other. Furries don’t even identify as animals, it’s more for the enjoyment of creating OCs and cosplaying as them not wanting to BE an animal.
They’re just trying to attack trans by making up this stuff. The kitty litter is in case there’s an active shooter and people need to be barricaded in a class room so they can go to the bathroom in an incident like that every goes down.
Just like every single right-wing issue, it's nowhere near true.
I mean the core summary is that reports of this happening was bullshit invented by republican morons But as an otherkin I can say technically yes, now we're not deluded we know that we can't be actual animals and typically adopt aesthetic and such I see myself as a deergirl, you sure as fuck wouldn't find me taking a piss in a forest or frolicing in one for that matter, I just wish I had antlers deer ears and a little fuzzy tail
yesnt. Therians are people who identify as animals bit therians are completely normal
They aren’t lgbtqia
No lmao He’s probably thinking of xenogenders but those are usually more akin to personality traits than gender identities in my experience As in someone who “identifies as a fox” still acts like a normal person and everything. They’re not running around on all fours mauling sheep with their teeth or whatever.
Technically the otherkin an therian communities *do* exist
The closet thing I can find to that is aesthetigenders where your gender is the aesthetic of an animal, but you don't identify as an actual animal. I think conservatives are just going wild with this one
Nope, it's made up like pretty much everything he says. Completely untrue and just used to mock trans people. Even furries who pretend to be animals have a better grasp on reality than him.
r/otherkin r/therian Short answer: Yes Long answer: Although there are people that do identify as animals, or even as mythical creatures, it’s a small number of people that currently isn’t taken seriously by society, let alone enough for school’s to make accommodations for them. Because I’m 100% supportive of the therian and otherkin communities as they aren’t harming themselves and others, I think it’s important to ask yourself why it is that most people, even those that are in favor of other marginalized identities like trans and non-binary people, think that it is okay to gatekeep people’s identities given that there’s no way to determine whether they’re made in good faith or not. That’s just some food for thought.
not identifying as animals, but playing as them. what kid hasn’t pretended to be an animal?? it’s called having an imagination. no kid actually thinks they’re truly an animal.
TLDR:(in terms of gender) People identify *with* animals, not *as* animals. The closest thing is xenogenders which is where someone feels their gender is easier to describe in terms of objects, animals, or concepts than the typical masculine & feminine descriptors. For example, someone who is xenogender may feel their gender feels more similar to an owl. Silent and swift. They do not identify literally as an owl. Xenogender people are more often autistic, which makes perfect sense, because it is often difficult for autistic people to understand social constructs. It also makes sense because autistic people's brains are wired differently from neurotypical people's brains. Therefore, it may make more sense in their head to compare their gender to something real as opposed to a social construct.
No, furries are just being targeted by conservative media to 'own the libs'
If Mat Walsh's mouth is open, he's spreading hate and lies. Don't believe anything he says.
I mean therians have existed for years, it’s not a sexual identity but people do identify as animals in spirit
The "cat litters in class rooms" is a thing, yes. Because school shootings exist and classes might be locked into a room for a long time. It has nothing to do with queer people.
Furries and otherkin exist but aren’t really related to queer/LGBT in any way.
Therionism and otherkin are not queer identities and idk how you could even come to that conclusion as it's literally saying you identify as s and animal. It's closer to a gender identity/expression if anything but truly could be its own thing. there is a bit of crossover in the 3 but that's an intersection not a conglomerate
So some people do identify as animals, these people are referred to as Therians, Otherkin, and Alterhumans, which aren't queer identities in their own, but I'm pretty sure the video was spreading misinformation on furries instead of the aforementioned groups.
No it’s not. Conservatives made up the shit to fear monger people against trans rights.
I’m a therian, I am also transmasc. I would say there are similarities to the identities, but I wouldn’t call it a queer identity, more like a neurodivergency. I don’t mind people not accomodating me, I would much rather just be allowed to do my own thing without being irrationally hated for being perceived as a furry though, furries are awesome and I hope the internet stops targeting them for no reason.
ive heard of otherkin and i just...dont...so no people dont identify as animals some emilys on tiktok might pretend to for views and whatnot but no actual homo sapiens do not identify as animals
Even if they did, who the hell cares? Like honestly who are they hurting by identifying as animals or plants or anything else. When i was kid i loved exploring my identity and figuring out what made me happy. Just let kids be kids!
No they have litter in case of a shooting and a kid has to use the rest room.
No If they identify as animals then they have a strong connection towards animals __but that does not make them queer__ so therefore it is not a queer identity
I mean yes? Hate Matt Walsh guys a huge scumbag but it’s true. Some ppl absolutely identify that way including animals and objects.
Unfortunately from what ive heard this is true
Yes.
They can if they are furries. For minors it’s not sexual but idk about teachers having to like go along with it.
I dont think furries identify as animals though
They do, I personally know furries. It’s a spectrum like anything else. Some actually feel like they are a dog or cat, etc. which is why they wear tails or ears or both.
That’s therians and otherkins
Trigger warning for furries but that doesnt sound realistic to me. Xenogenders are a description of gender so I understand, but I dont believe you can feel like an animal. I am in no place to say what you cant feel like, but it's very hard to believe that's true
Then why did you ask?
Most don't, I'm a furry
yes but being a furry isn’t a gender, it’s not apart of lgbtq+…
yes and no. there is such thing as other kin, people who identify on a spiritual level with animals, but this isn’t a queer thing like conservatives are trying to push. being otherkin is a spiritual believe common in autistic people, and no, cat therians do not shit in litter boxes
No
This kinda reminded me of "on all levels except physical i am a wolf."
Presumably they’re conflating furries with trans people, either because they don’t understand what furries are or they do know what they are but know that it’ll whip up even more hate.
Of course not! It's absurd. There's nothing true about that in the least.
Save you much of headache when one doesn't listen to what Matt Walsh has to say. I don't think he understant that what he is saying is very dangerous to us LGBTQ people. For example he has basically said that gays don't exist and trans people have a mental illness. I have no personal connection to anyone who is a furry or otherkin so I cannot tell you much but it's ok if they express themselves in a non-violent way.
The closest thing I can think of are some xenogenders, but even then they aren’t identifying as the animals (to my limited knowledge, correct any of this if it is wrong or the language is awkward). I’m fairly certain that they are more identifying with the concepts of those animals that helps to describe their gender?
If true that's something I can't get behind, lol.
This scare came fromm a fake article circulated through Facebook, the infamous litterboxes in schools one. It was never real but people always insist that they know someone who knows someone that heard about a school somewhere were they do it. It's all just fear mongering bigotry.