New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc is the latest Republican candidate to falsely claim schools are providing “litter boxes” to students identifying as cats.
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New Hampshire Republican Don Bolduc falsely claimed schools are providing kids “litter boxes.”
Bolduc, who is running for Senate, was repeating a right-wing urban legend.
Pinkerton Academy, one of the schools he cited, said the claim is “entirely untrue.”
At a campaign stop last week in New Hampshire, Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc told supporters a right-wing urban legend meant to suggest that the world has gone crazy when it comes to gender and recognizing a person’s identity.
In audio obtained by CNN, Bolduc, a retired Army general who is in a tight contest against Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan, claimed that schools across the state were providing students litter boxes because so many of them were identifying as cats.
“I wish I was making it up,” Bolduc said.
While he didn’t invent the tale — it’s shown up in other Republican campaigns too — one of the schools he identified as catering to kids who think they’re cats said Monday that it is completely bogus.
“We want to assure our community that Mr. Bolduc’s statements are entirely untrue,” Pinkerton Academy, a high school with around 3,300 students, said in a statement posted on Twitter. “We invite all political candidates to speak with members of our administration or visit our campus so they can inform themselves about our school before making claims about what occurs here. “
The school was one of several named by Bolduc. “Derry, that’s it,” he said after a member of the audience helped him to identify the town where it is based.
Bolduc’s false claims elicited laughter from the crowd.
“Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms,” he said, per CNN. “They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss – people walk down the hallway and jump out.”
“And get this, get this,” he continued. “They’re putting litter boxes, right? Litter boxes for that.”
Bolduc’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not the first time this election cycle that a school has had to correct a Republican candidate for spreading misinformation. According to NBC News, at least 20 other GOP candidates for state and federal office have spread the “litter box” myth, citing it amid debate over the rights of transgender students.
In Colorado, for example, Republican candidate for governor Heid Ganahl claimed several times that schools were being inundated with students choosing absurd identities, claiming “kids are identifying as cats.”
“It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado and schools are tolerating it,” she added. “It’s insane.”
Jeffco Public Schools, a large school district near Denver, corrected the record.
“There are no litter boxes in our buildings and students are not allowed to come to school in costume,” the school said in a statement provided to a local Fox affiliate. “There are no furries or students identifying as such during the school day.”
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