Wednesday, January 25, 2012

BRB: I'm Headed To The DMV

What's this? In Indiana? The state's first specialty license plate that benefits LGBT causes is now available for purchase.
Oh, but it is. Bureau of Motor Vehicles [BMV] spokesman Graig Lubsen said the Indiana Youth Group plate has been available since last month; the plate bears a logo with hands in rainbow colors reaching up.Twenty-five dollars from the sale of each $40 plate goes to the group serving LGBTQ youth. The Indiana Youth Group operates an activity center, helps develop Gay Straight Alliances in high schools and assists communities in forming youth services; the group serves some 1,400 youths and young adults ages 12 to 21.
Youth Group director Mary Byrne says every nickel raised by the sale of these specialty plates "will go directly for services to these young people."
Indiana is only the second state in the nation with a specialty plate benefiting gay youths. Maryland was the first.
But it took a lawsuit to have the plate made available.
The Youth Group sued the state in 2010 after the BMV turned down its request for a specialty plate in 2008 and 2009, alleging the BMV used arbitrary and unconstitutional standards in deciding whether to approve plates for nonprofit groups. Both sides later reached an agreement and the lawsuit was dismissed. The Youth Group applied again and the plate was approved.
Makes me wanna pack up my bags and move to, of all places, Indiana, except........


Down here in South Carolina, we can now purchase an SC Equality license plate.Now, the license plate doesn't have a rainbow flag, or rainbow colors, or pink triangles, or RuPaul, on it, but it's an LGBT supportive plate.

It was created as a way of allowing residents of South Carolina to publicly display their support of community, culture and policy that encourages and advocates for equal treatment for all South Carolinians, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
And the license plates comes in 2012, which is the tenth anniversary of the founding of SC Equality. In effing South Carolina.
After hanging my head that a serial adulterer and racist wingnut won the GOP Primary, hearing this news allowed me to hold my head up again.
Way to go, SC! Way to go!


Indiana
South Carolina

5 comments:

  1. Some progress, albeit slow for South Carolina. God forbid that the rainbow colors signifying GLBRT causes would appear on a SC license plate. Wouldn't want to offend the God fearing Christians now would we?

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  2. Kudos to S.C. (and Indiana, of course!)!!! :)

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  3. Anonymous12:19 PM

    And yet we can't have one of those here in supposed "liberal" California.

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  4. I have to say I'm pretty proud of SC and Indiana on this announcement. Equality can use all the support it gets.

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