Man’s ‘LGBTALY’ license plate rejected for being ‘sexual in nature’
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An Oklahoma man’s custom license plate in support of the LGBT community has been rejected.
John Patrick Keefe II – who is straight – applied for the vanity plate as a show of support for his LGBT friends and family. It was rejected, he says, because it was deemed to be sexual in nature.
He told Oklahoma City news station Koco: “When I am driving around with license plate that says LGBT ally, it shows to other people, ‘Look, I am here for my fellow Oklahomans’. I have a lot of [gay] friends and even my sister Kimberly is gay.
“They turned that down saying that it was sexual in nature and I thought that that was pretty unfair”
The Oklahoma Tax Commission, who turned down his application, have said that “LGBT” is not on their banned list of words, but have not made clear why Dr Keefe’s application was refused.
Dr Keefe is a minister and performs wedding ceremonies for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. He intends to sue the Oklahoma Tax Commission. He told News OK: “I’m holding out for the license plate I deserve to have. If the tax commission denies it, we are prepared to go to the state Supreme Court. I don’t care how much it costs.”