I wish I was making this shit up but unfortunately I’m not:
Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance appears to agree that it’s “crazy” that schools are putting out litter boxes for students to defecate in and that kids are being allowed to act like chipmunks in schools.
Vance is just the latest Republican to publicly say that he believes in one of the most bizarre urban legends to gain popularity this year: that students who call themselves furries are demanding that schools provide them litterboxes and let them act like animals in schools.
Vance was on The Bill Cunningham Show – a Christian talk radio show – this past Wednesday when the host brought up student-furries.
“There are some students identifying as cats and they bring kitty litter with them to school,” Cunningham said. “Some identify as dogs and they have to be called Fido and ‘little pussycats’ instead of human beings.”
“One of the worst things is, if they do not use the proper preferred nouns and pronouns of other students, K through the 12th grade, schools will be required to socially transition using child-selected names and pronouns in school,” he continued.
“Minor kids like yours J.D. Vance will not be notified if your child wants to socially transition to a different gender or to an animal species,” he said. “Should you be entitled to know if your seven-year-old identifies as a chipmunk?”
Instead of telling Cunningham that his question was ridiculous, Vance took it seriously: “Uh, I think I’m very much entitled to know that. What a crazy point we’ve reached in this country, Willie, where schools are doing this stuff without the approval of parents.”
Wonkette nails it:
That was his question for a man running for the United States Senate. Should you be told if your child decides to identify as a chipmunk. Because that's a thing kids are doing. They're transitioning to chipmunks. At school. And the school won't tell you if your child decides to become a chipmunk.
And JD Vance said out loud with his whole entire mouth, with a serious dad voice, that "I think I very much am entitled to know that!"
He added that this is a "crazy point we've reached in this country" where "schools are doing this stuff without the approval of parents" or that "schools are doing this at all."
Yes, what a crazy point we have reached, where the schools are letting the children identify as chipmunks or dogs or pussycats and bring their own kitty litter from home, and JD Vance is the serious candidate for serious people who want to stop these serious problems from happening. (By the way, he and Tim Ryan are TIED, according to the latest poll. Let's bring this home, Ohio.)
Pretty sure if one of JD Vance's kids went to school looking like a furry it would only be because it was Dress Up As Your Dad Day, and since their dad is literally just an adult-sized pile of human butt hair with Aryan blue eyes peeping through, well that'd be their costume.
Here’s some more context here:
At a luncheon for Republican women in Mesa County, Colorado, last week, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., warned that educators “are putting litter boxes in schools for people who identify as cats.”
To a person not steeped in the culture war battles over gender identity that have engulfed school districts nationwide, it’s the kind of claim that would sound bizarre and confusing — and, from high-profile GOP members, authoritative.
The week before, on Sept. 29, Minnesota GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen asked during a campaign stop, “Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry?”
And during a legislative hearing last month in Tennessee, two Republican state lawmakers discussed the “growing crisis” of public schools providing litter boxes for children who identify as cats, and claimed it’s happening across the state.
At least 20 conservative candidates and elected officials have claimed this year that K-12 schools are placing litter boxes on campus or making other accommodations for students who identify as cats, according to an NBC News review of public statements.
Every school district that has been named by those 20 politicians said either to NBC News or in public statements that these claims are untrue. There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats.
But the claim has taken on a life of its own among a growing number of Republicans, conservative influencers and political commentators. In an episode of Spotify’s “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast this week, host Joe Rogan told former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard that a litter box was installed in a school that his friend’s wife worked at for a girl who “identifies as an animal.” A clip of the discussion quickly began to circulate on social media. Rogan did not name the school, and his publicist did not respond to a request for comment.
There is a real subculture of people known as furries, a community of children and adults who roleplay as anthropomorphized animal characters. But the vast majority of them still identify as humans, while sometimes adopting an animal-like persona and engaging in short-term roleplay, according to furries and experts, one of whom noted that there are no litter boxes at furry conventions. Three school-age furries told NBC News they have at times dressed up at school, typically wearing just part of their full costume such as a mask or gloves that look like paws, but they’d never heard of any furry ever asking for a litter box.
That has not stopped such rumors from circulating on social media, where they have been repeated like a game of telephone, often with descriptions of friends of friends who supposedly saw such things firsthand. And it has not stopped some politicians from picking up these claims and using them to alarm people by saying that this is where protections for LGBTQ students will lead.
“What’s most provocative about this hoax is how it turns on two key wedge issues for conservatives: educational accommodations and gender nonconformity,” said Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and co-author of “Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.”
Here’s the latest poll on the race:
That’s an improvement for Ryan since their September poll:
By the way, Ryan’s been doing a great job reminding voters Vance is unhinged:
While keeping a focus on the issues at hand:
FYI:
Dave Matthews will hold a free concert in Columbus later this month as a show of support for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio's race for U.S. Senate.
Matthews will perform Oct. 24 at Kemba Live!, as part of Ryan's Get Out the Vote event. Attendees may RSVP online for the show here.
Ryan is running against Republican candidate J.D. Vance in the U.S. Senate race that has remained neck-and-neck ahead of the Nov. 8 election. The winner will replace retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.
Vance and Ryan faced off on the debate stage Monday after spending months attacking each other on the campaign trail. The candidates are set to debate a second time at 7 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown. The debate will be hosted and air on WFMJ.
The concert is at 405 Neil Ave in Columbus. Doors for the event open at 5 p.m.
Click here on how you can vote early.
Health and Democracy are on the ballot this year and we need to get ready to flip Ohio Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with Ryan and his fellow Ohio Democrats campaigns:
