I just saw it on CNN.com this morning. Basically, a woman wanted GAYSROK on her personalized license plate in Utah and it was refused on the grounds of being offensive to common decency (I don't think that's the exact wording, but it's in the article).
This story just made me scratch my head in puzzlement. I live in NH and due to our personalized license plate costs being wicked cheap, there's a TON of such plates here. I know that if I'd read that plate here, I would've laughed, thought it was cool, and really thought nothing of it, except that it's fairly clever.
I don't know. Other thoughts?
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Well, Utah isn't New Hampshire and decency is based on community standards. That said, 'decency' can't be used to suppress speech that the community doesn't like.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I think we ought to avoid the issue altogether and go back to completely random plates for everyone.
But of course, the state would lose the revenue they get from the additional fees, so that ain't gonna happen.
If we think the public is going to be offended by a license plate that supports gay rights then what about bumper stickers? Better ban the ones that talk about homosexuals too. And let's ban all the Christian bumper stickers because it might offend an atheist.
I'm curious though, do those that support her being able to get one that reads "GAYSROK" think it should also be okay to get one that reads "1COR6 9" which is the Bible verse that says
quote:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
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And I agree - both should be allowed. But I was just curious if the fact that one is a religious message might make a difference to some.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Exactly. I wouldn't be offended by it at all. I love personalized plates. It makes a great highway game to figure out what a plate means.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I saw a middle aged guy in a Jaguar the other day. His personalized plate said SHGSTR. I think that should be allowed because definitely crossed the line of taste.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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The Smoking Gun has a great list of banned license plates, and also requests from people for the revocation of others plates. Some of them are pretty foul (consider that fair warning), but many are extrememly clever.
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Now, I hate to plead stupidity -- but the one she is holding in the photo attached to the article -- that they said they had to recall and ban -- what exactly does it mean? Why is it bad?
I read the full article when it was in the paper, but now I see they explain that one in the article itself. I didn't see that before...
quote:Earlier this year, for example, the state revoked one Kansan's plate that said "ZYKLON" after it came to Alldritt's attention that it was a cyanide gas manufactured for use in Nazi gas chambers
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I think all three examples we've seen should be allowed if personalized plates are allowed. But I'd prefer we do away with personalized plates entirely.
Besides avoiding the whole offensiveness/free speech tension, we can also stay in Boyce-Codd normal form and avoid using arbitrary primary keys to convey non-key dependent information.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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If I got custom plates, I'd pick either "IFORGET" or "IDUNNO". That way, if I fled the scene of an incident, and the police asked the witnesses if anyone got a look at my license plate, they would answer "I forget" or "I dunno", and I'd be off the hook.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
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When I used to work on EMS -- we had to watch for personalized plates at the scenes of accidents we were working -- because in bad accidents there were often TV crews present, so we would drap a cloth over the license plate.
Like one time in a fatality accident when normally "the name of the victim is not released until relatives are notified" and we realized the personalized plate was their frickin' last name
quote:Originally posted by adam613: Back in my Miami days, I remember there being a minor flap over a guy who got a license plate containing a word that could be considered vulgar in some Spanish dialect (most likely Cuban, since it was Miami). The DMV, being in Talahassee, didn't know what it meant, and tried to revoke it after the fact. I don't recall the outcome, but the letters to the editor in the Miami Herald were funny.
I remember that guy. I think what his license plate said was "JEWBAN." He meant it to be a statement that he was a Jewish Cuban, but some people thought it meant "ban Jews."
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What I thought was particularly stupid was Mr Conover's comment that this "opens the door" for people to make personalized license plates "a public forum". I think that door was "opened" when personalized plates were allowed in the first place, unless Utah has somehow managed to prevent anyone from making any kind of personal statement of belief through the use of vanity plates. I seriously doubt that. I mean, if I was into gambling, I'd bet money that RULDS2 has been taken, and CTR and RTNWHNR, etc. etc.
Besides, many gays do, in fact, rock. Their personal sexual preferences do not make them evil people incapable of being awesome. Now, if someone had a license plate that said, "I have a personal testimony that the LDS Church is the one true church and I purposely practice homosexuality to be subversive and to tear apart families," or something like that, that would bother me. But I don't think it would fit, and I really don't think that is the attitude of your typical, sane gay person.
Posts: 700 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Honestly, I'm still stuck on the part about how so many people today (not here so much, but out in the world) seem to think that if something offends them, then no one should be allowed to say or print it. I see and hear things that offend me from time to time, but I've never thought that means that I have a right to try and ban people from expressing those ideas. People need to grow up and realize that there are valid points of view other than theirs.
Oh, and on a much lighter note: I saw a license plate this afternoon that said "SOS UFO". Liked that alot. Oh, and I'd like to know what some of these people sorely lacking in a sense of humor would do with a license plate frame I see around town, on a green VW, that reads "Soylent Green...It's What's For Dinner". 'Course, a lot of people wouldn't get that one, either.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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