There's a bright yellow streak on both of my passenger doors.
There's a little blue there, too.
I sideswiped a fire hydrant. I didn't see it.
But because I didn't see any water jet into the air, figuring no great harm, I moved on.
It's the same with kids and school culture.
Schools today chase the latest ideology. And because we can't see the damage or we choose to ignore it, the idea seems to be, what's the harm in letting a kid express themselves? Who cares if they dress up as a furry?
A furry, if you'll recall, is a child who identifies as an animal and is allowed to dress and behave accordingly. For some of you, it's not a big deal.
Some of you might think that it's ok for your child to dress up like a fox and use a litter box at school.
But is it?
Will you be surprised to find out that the furry world is fraught with sexual undertones?
Do schools bear responsibility for what they allow?
Aren’t they complicit in the over-sexualization of our kids?
Or, at the very least, exposing kids to confusing ideas that many parents find offensive?
Schools need to deal with this. So do parents.
The community itself is known for its diversity and acceptance. One-third of the furry community identifies as exclusively heterosexual, and furries are five times as likely to identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual) than the general population.
Compared with the general population, homosexuality and bisexuality are over-represented in the furry fandom by about 10 times.
Of the adult US population, about 3.1% of people identify as bisexual, 1.4% as gay, and 0.7% as lesbian, according to a 2020 Gallup update.
In contrast, according to four different surveys, 14–25% of the furry fandom members report homosexuality, 37–52% bisexuality, 28–51% heterosexuality, and 3–8% other forms of alternative sexual relationships.
Were you aware?
And has anyone asked where this ends up?
No matter what, none of this has any place in our schools.
None of this is innocent fun.
It's not just kids dressed up as "their" animal.
It's not just litter boxes in a school bathroom.
Yes. I’ve heard from several of you that there are already requests for litter boxes in local school bathrooms.
You told me you'd seen this with your own eyes or that your kids came home from school last year talking about it.
For those of you on the fence, this isn’t make-believe.
Rather, adults are bending to the will of strange behavior.
And instead of ushering this not-so-silly identification out the schoolhouse door, we've turned it into a school-wide party and added our decorations.
So, how did we get here?
It seemed these ideas marched through our schools, commanding the direction of entire curriculums overnight.
Not only that. Why did schools capitulate to furries, along with the LGBTQIA, so quickly?
The big picture came initially from Karl Marx.
Then the Frankfurt school in Germany.
Then New York's Columbia teacher's college trained teachers in the Marxist pedagogy, which is the method and practice of teaching Marxism. It's now slithered its way through teachers' colleges worldwide and found its way into the curriculum used in our schools.
Yes. In Alabama.
Yes. This is gender and identity Marxism.
The oppressors versus the oppressed.
We, not of the alphabet mafia - including furries - oppress those that are.
And because they are oppressed, from furries to LGBTQIA, they should be allowed to do whatever they want.
While our kids follow the rules, they don't.
Even if it's a small group, that small group rules the roost.
Ideas do have consequences.
And the ideas that allowed furries in the first place aren’t going anywhere soon.
Not unless we stop and honestly assess the damage.
When I stopped for dinner, I could hardly believe what I'd done to my car.
It's only a stupid hunk of metal, but my mistake will cost me dearly.
Imagine what we've done to our most beloved treasure?
Instead of dealing with kids as individuals, instead of getting the help they need, we’ve asked school-aged children to pay the price for devastating ideologies that will have serious ramifications.
There are three weeks left until school starts.
It's our job to decide what we will do, what we will allow, and what we want in our schools.
I ask, ad nauseam:
State school board, where are you?
Legislators, where are you?
Local school boards, where are you?
Local principals, where are you?
And, parents.
Who will step up before the damage is beyond repair?
What exactly are we doing to our kids?
Amie Beth Shaver is a speaker, writer, and media commentator. Her column appears every Wednesday in 1819 News. Shaver served on the Alabama GOP State Executive Committee, was a candidate for State House District 43 and spokeswoman for Allied Women. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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