Well, this is just lovely.
The great state of Alabama has issued the owner of a shiny black Ford Mustang a vanity license plate that displays the words “No Homo.”
The plate reads “N0H0M0,” with zeroes instead of letter o’s. According to Gay Star News, “No Homo” is a term used in hip hop culture by someone who wants to distance himself from something he said that may give the impression he’s gay.
“In a sense,” music journalist Nick Catucci explains in New York Magazine, “‘no homo’ is just a more evolved way of calling someone a faggot.”
The plate was first noticed by Paul Fulton Jr. earlier this week. He told ThinkProgress that he was “first shocked, then angered” that the state had issued a blatantly homophobic plate.
“How could they allow outright discrimination to be published on a state license plate?” he said.
Of course, Alabama has a lot of work to do with it comes to how it treats gay people. The state does not recognize marriages between same-sex couples. On top of that, it has no nondiscrimination ordinances or hate crime laws that protect LGBT people. And up until 2003, sodomy was still illegal. Even today, despite the U.S. Supreme Court striking down all state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas, lawmakers in Alabama have yet to actually remove the unconstitutional, unenforceable sodomy law from the state’s books. So we can’t say we’re totally surprised it issued this license plate like this, though it’s still disappointing.
Amanda Collier, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Revenue, told ThinkProgress that there was a process is in place to monitor personalized license plates.
When a driver files a request for a vanity plate, she explained, a three-person review panel considers each application, sometimes offering alternative lettering for the requested message.
“There is a list of more than 6,000 plates that are strictly banned and will not be allowed on any tag in the state,” she said, including “anything explicit, any profanity, or vulgar language.”
Evidently, antigay messages don’t quality as explicit, profane or vulgar.
Related stories:
Gender-Bending, All-Male Dance Troupe Causes Outrage And “Disgust” In Alabama
Apple CEO Tim Cook Reads Alabama’s Anti-Gay Governor to Filth
Alabama Woman Charged With Murder After Shooting Son’s Boyfriend In The Back
queue09
“Homo is the genus of hominids that includes modern humans and species closely related to them. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old…”
Maybe the person is just saying they aren’t actually a human.
Trippy
I lived in Huntsville Al in the mid-nineties for about 8 months. For those unfamiliar, Huntsville is populated heavily by NASA types who work at the space center. People there tend to think of themselves as residents of Huntsville, not as residents of Alabama. Personally, I didn’t find it to be that progressive or tolerant. I awoke to the “f” slur painted on the front door of my apartment one morning. The landlord said, “I guess you need to let people know you’re not gay.” … As if THAT mattered.
I moved back to NC weeks later.
rickhfx
I bet lot of straight people are having a good laugh. That was no accident. No “three people watching for such plates to be produced” could be that stupid Can someone lawsuit against the department and state for domestic terrorism, slurs like that are meant to dehumanize and promote hate and violence, no difference then burning a cross or painting a swastika on a Synagogue.
Damich
Their license plate should more accurately say who’s driving the car: CLOSETCASE
Chris Vogel
Keep in mind that, in Alabama, some high schools still hold segregated Proms.
jason smeds
They may as well call Alabama the state of hate. It has a long history.
Lindoro Almaviva
@jason smeds: CL0S3T-C4S3 would be more accurate, and it is too long, he can have a his and his set so they can park by each other in the garage.
Ladbrook
Only a massively insecure closet case would ever think to use that as a license plate ID. If I saw that in a mall parking lot I’d immediately think “midnight rest area cruiser with a taste for truckers.”
He should have just outed himself with a rainbow sticker and called it a day.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Anyone wanna guess how many times the smcubag driver of that Mustang gets “lost” and needs to pull into the local cruise area for “directions”??
Ladbrook
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Twice weekly, minimum.
lykeitiz
Too bad all bigots don’t label themselves this way. They should all wear targets.
Ogre Magi
the South is such a rotten place
Stache99
A few decades back and it would’ve been NON*GGER.
Greg Garavani
So does that mean in California I can get a plate with the word ‘Fag’ on it? Don’t see what could be holding me back!
Dakotahgeo
Deep south, religious extremists, intelligence-challenged… and your question is?
jwtraveler
@queue09: I’m sure that’s it.
Clay83
This kind of thing makes me very thankful that I live in a country where the government would never discriminate like that anymore. Its time for the politicians to evolve in the US to reflect what a beautiful country and people you have.
Saint Law
Imagine being so fixated on something you feel the need to effectively carry a placard every moment you are in transit saying ‘I AM NOT THIS THING!’
nevereclipsed81
Well that’s a nice way of saying you’re full off same sex attractions but won’t act on them because you got a mustang. Congratulations douche on creeping out everyone who drives behind you.
1EqualityUSA
“NOBIGOT”
1EqualityUSA
“NOHATE”
1EqualityUSA
“NOHOPE”
Tereasa
@queue09: You know damn well that’s not what that person ment.
NiceNCool1
I want to move there and get a plate that says, “NTCHRIST” LOL