A Texas conformity bill could impact tabletop roleplaying games in schools statewide

On Thursday, March 13, 2025, the Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act (and yes, it is called the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act in the filing) was presented to the Texas House of Representatives by Representative Stan Gerdes. According to the bill, the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act is aimed at “the display of and allowance for non-human behaviors in Texas schools.”

It appears to be inspired by the debunked 2022 rumor that schools were allowing litterboxes in Iowa schools for children who “identify as cats.” This rumor had been brought before the Nebraska state legislature not two months after the rumors began in February, causing backlash and forcing State Senator Bruce Bostelman to later apologize for the remarks. The Bulwark did an investigation in October of that year and came to the same conclusion–no evidence was found of children using litter boxes in schools. Even Joe Rogan admitted that the whole thing was a farce. The evidence for furries in schools demanding litter to shit in does not exist. 

Noah Downs, a lawyer with a special interest in tabletop games told Rascal via email, “While seemingly targeting specific subcultures, the language of the [F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act] is alarmingly broad and could result in the effective banning—and even criminalization—of school-sanctioned D&D and TTRPG clubs and other roleplaying groups, such as LARP.” He goes on, saying that “the F.U.R.R.I.E.S Act is not just about school dress codes—it is an attack on roleplaying as a form of expression. By classifying roleplaying non-human characters as punishable conduct and equating encouragement of such behavior with child abuse, the bill effectively bans D&D clubs in Texas schools and makes teachers or organizers legally vulnerable.”

Another lawyer, and one of Downs' colleagues, Tess Lynch, underlines the rights of students in her response to Rascal via email. She points out a section of the bill that attempts to ban accessories and articles of clothing, and includes “artificial, animal-like ears."

"Students have free speech rights at school. The Supreme Court has been clear about this for decades," Lynch writes. "In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines that schools couldn’t punish students for wearing black armbands as political protest. If armbands are protected speech, how can [headbands with] cat ears be banned?"

"The language of the bill does not stop at D&D clubs—it creates a chilling effect on all forms of speculative fiction engagement in schools."

This Act is deeply reminiscent of the Satanic Panic that gripped the nation in the 80s, where concerned parents insisted that roleplay and make-believe was affecting their children’s ability to discern the structures of reality. On the front cover of Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD), the pamphlet published by Mary and Pat Dempsey in the mid-80s, is the quote “the more I play D&D, the more I want to get away from this world,” underlying the specific fear that imagination destroys the appeal of “reality.” The introduction states that fantasy roleplaying–arguably the same kind of fantasy roleplaying that Gerdes’ bill is concerned with–“[erodes] traditional values” and that playing games leads to children “being sucked into a vortex of undesirable real-life behavior.”