A Republican state senator from Nebraska is being duly mocked for standing up in front of his fellow lawmakers in the legislature and falsely claiming school children are now identifying as cats and dogs, “furries,” he stated, demanding litter boxes, and defecating on the floor when they don’t get them.
Rather than doing any practical investigation to determine if his claims were accurate – they are not – Senator Bruce Bostelman merely passed the false claim on to his associates – and the general public (video below.) When corrected by a constituent he appears to have doubled down.
“I’m a little shocked, I guess, is what I would put it,” Sen. Bostelman declared. “It’s about something called ‘furries.’ If you don’t know what furries are it’s where school children dress up as animals – cats or dogs – during the school day. They meow and they bark, and they interact with their school, with the teachers in this fashion, and now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children, to use.”
“How is this sanitary?” Bostelman asked, with a straight face, seemingly convinced it is happening.
“I even heard from one person here recently,” he went on, “that a student identified as a cat, and wanted a litter box, and the school didn’t provide the litter box so the student went ahead and defecated on the floor.”
“Really,” Bostelman added, insisting it was true.
“Really,” he repeated, absolutely convinced.
He went on to decry that students are being kicked out of school for wearing American flags but not for “wearing a cat costume.”
KMTV reporter Jon Kipper, who posted the video, points to an article that says similar rumors were so pervasive in Iowa and Michigan at least one superintendent had to deny they were true.
But what’s really going on, as the KCRG report states, is this is an anti-transgender misinformation campaign.
“Iowa State Education Association Director Mary Jane Cobb said the litter box rumors are a right-wing attempt to mock LGBTQ+ restroom equality,” KCRG reports.
“It’s absurd, and it’s mean-spirited, and it is absolutely not the focus we should be having right now,” Cobb said.
Bostelman is apparently doubling down, according to a progressive Facebook page, Seeing Red Nebraska, which posted what it says is his email. That email (below) has been confirmed to NCRM by Dr. Ari Kohen, a professor of social justice and political theory:
Meanwhile. Sen. Bostelman is being roundly slammed and mocked: