Tag Archives: DMV

Winston-Salem’s NPR affiliate reports: For the first time, “GAYPRIDE” is available as a vanity license plate in North Carolina. It’s one of over 200 terms that were removed from the state’s prohibited plates list after a review late last year. As recently as last year, the “Do No Issue” list included “GAYPRIDE,” “LESBIAN,” and “QUEER” – entries that prompted DMV …

NY1 reports: The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles will be closing all their offices due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement was made Saturday and stated expiration dates for driver licenses, non-driver IDs, and registrations set to expire on or post-March 1, 2020, would be extended, while road tests would be suspended. Additionally, in-office reservations, road tests, …

Florida has issued a standard series of license plates that happen to begin with “GAY.” Some drivers and at least one dealership have complained, but the state doesn’t see any problem. Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: Certain words are banned from Florida license plates, but a number of plates with “GAY” on them are being given to drivers across Orange County. …

We knew THIS was coming: Alabama now faces a federal lawsuit over its voter ID law after closing 30 or so driver’s licenses offices, many of them in areas with high African-American populations. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is bringing the suit on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Alabama NAACP. It was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court …

A Massachusetts woman has won the right to wear her Holy Headgear in her driver’s license photo. The Boston Globe reports: Lindsay Miller claims the spaghetti strainer is a sign of her devotion to the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” Miller was originally denied by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles the right to wear the colander, her lawyer …

From an opinion piece on AL.com: Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either twelve or fifteen Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license. Counties where some of the state’s poorest live. Counties that are majority African-American. Combine that with the federally mandated Star ID taking effect next year, …

Last month we learned that Alabama was set to close 45 of its 49 driver’s license bureaus despite a strict voter ID law. The number of planned office closures has since been reduced to 33 and the state is preparing to make that move. Via Montgomery’s NBC affiliate: Governor Robert Bentley is moving ahead with plans to close some driver’s …

Several states are looking into digitizing driver’s licenses for display on smartphones and Delaware wants to be the first to implement the system. Via the Washington Post: The Delaware legislature passed a bill last week asking the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles to “study and consider issuing” digital driver’s licenses that could replace the traditional plastic ones. This bill notes …

Via the Orlando Sentinel: Two gay men from Brevard County who sued the state for refusing to honor their out-of-state marriage and change their names on the driver’s licenses on Tuesday won a victory. Scott Wall-DeSousa and Daniel Wall-DeSousa walked out of the Brevard County Tax Collector’s office in Palm Bay with new driver’s licenses, each bearing their new hyphenated …

Clip recap: “More victories this week in some very conservative states. We’re now closer than ever to the start of marriage in Arkansas and Mississippi. Florida is refusing to issue drivers’ licenses to a couple after they married and changed their last name. And support for marriage has skyrocketed in Wyoming.”

A Florida couple has sued the state for the recognition of their New York marriage after being told that they could not register their new names with the DMV. Via the Orlando Sentinel: Daniel Wall-DeSousa, 40, and Scott Wall-DeSousa, 37, filed suit this week in Orlando federal court, asking a judge to force the Florida Department of Highway Safety and …

Former porn actress Asia Lemmon (real name Jessica Steinhauser) was allowed to wear her Holy Colander while posing for her Utah driver’s license. Lemmon, who says she is an atheist, said claiming membership in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was a decision she’s proud of. “I’m a really proud, outspoken atheist,” Lemmon said. “I am proud of Utah …

Via Orlando’s ABC affiliate: A same-sex couple living in Florida who used their marriage license to change their names on their drivers’ licenses just received a letter from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles warning them that they are both in danger of losing their licenses. The warning came in the mail after Channel 9 did a story on how …

In a tweet I posted earlier today, Parker reported that her kid was being hassled by the DMV because both of her moms’ names appear on her birth certificate.

Thanks to a Freedom Of Information Act demand, the state of New York has handed over its previously secret list of banned vanity plates. Via Village Voice: The agency says it’s meant to be “a guideline to the DMV employee who screens personalized license plate applications for offensive or objectionable words or phrases or messages.” And what a list it …

An Indiana judge has ordered the reinstatement of sales of the specialty license plate that benefits a local LGBT youth group. Sales of the Indiana Youth Group license plate were suspended in March of last year after 20 state legislators signed a letter to the BMV on the last day of the legislative session requesting immediate suspension alleging that IYG …

Score one for the FSM. In New Jersey: Motor vehicle workers in Dayton called police on a man who insisted on wearing a pasta strainer on his head during the taking of his driver’s license photo, according to a police report. South Brunswick police officers responded to the MVC facility on Route 130 on a call that a man renewing …

A federal district court has ruled that North Carolina’s anti-abortion license plate is unconstitutional because the state does not offer a pro-choice version.  “The State’s offering a Choose Life license plate in the absence of a pro-choice alternative constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment,” U.S. District Court Judge James Fox wrote in the ruling Friday. The ruling …

You may recall the case of the men arrested for refusing to stop preaching to a line of people waiting for a California DMV office to open. The arrests were made last spring and this week a judge refused to dismiss the charges. The preachers have issued a press release. An excerpt: Initially, when Mr. Mackey was arrested, the CHP …

Early this year Indiana approved a specialty license plate to benefit an LGBT youth group. That, of course, sent the American Family Association into a screaming fit and a bill to ban all such plates was shortly submitted. But for this year at least, the gay youth plate has survived its recall attempt. Indiana House lawmakers have abandoned a plan …