After purchasing a new SUV, a homosexual man was excited to put his new tags on the vehicle. However, once he looked at what the license plate read, he immediately went back to demand that they replace it with something less “offensive.”
According to reports, a Florida resident Craig Lukas prefers to maintain a low-key status when it comes to his sexual identity. However, an Orange County car dealership threatened to expose his identity – through a license plate that has a “GAY” word on it.
Lukas bought a new Volvo with his partner at a Winter Park dealership but has left it in his garage because of what it says on his license plate.
Well, Lukas is not the only one, some Florida residents are not pleased with a batch of newly issued state license plates that inadvertently have the word “GAY” written on them.
“There are plenty of combinations out there the state could have used,” Lukas told WFTV, which reports that he thinks the license plates are “slightly offensive” and that the state of Florida should have been “more sensitive. Definitely an oversight on the part of the state, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Lukas said the Winter Park dealer where he bought the car tried to give him a different license plate after he complained but informed him that every single plate they received in the last batch from The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles included the word.
However, the Tax Collectors’ Office said that there are certain words banned from being used on license plates but “gay” isn’t one of them. “These plates have been vetted by the state and we see no issue with them,” it said in a statement.
Additionally, the Department informed the station that there are a number of plates with a randomly-generated “GAY” in them and that drivers can exchange their plates for free if it makes them unhappy.
For now, Lukas says his car will remain in the garage until his new plate comes. He hopes that moving forward, officials will be more “sensitive” about the word combinations they issue on plates.
Sources: OpposingViews, Advocate