When Chris Avino learned he would have to take a new drivers license photo this time, without a colander on his head he vowed to fight the state of Georgia until the colander received the same religious headdress status as any hijab or yarmulke.
There was just one problem: by the time Avino was told that hed need a new photo, hed already moved from his parents Snellville address.
Instead of fighting to keep it on his noodle in Georgia, Avino simply got a Nevada drivers license in mid-January. That state let him wear a colander in his photo.
I was tired of waiting, Avino said in an email.
Avino is a Pastafarian, and claims that the colander is his religious headdress. Pastafarians belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a tongue-in-cheek group that substitutes eight Id Really Rather You Didnts for the Ten Commandments. Though they have been accused of being anti-religion, members are anti-crazy nonsense done in the name of religion, according to the churchs website.
But Georgia didnt recognize the group as a religion, and Department of Driver Services general counsel Angelique McClendon said in a letter that he needed a colander-free drivers license photo.
A colander is not a veil, scarf or headdress, she said. A colander is a kitchen utensil commonly used for washing or draining food.
Avino maintains that he should have been allowed to wear the colander.
If, for whatever reason, I move back to Georgia in the future, I will absolutely have my identification photo taken again wearing my religious headdress, he wrote. If I meet any resistance in that matter, my plan would be to find a lawyer myself and sue the Georgia Department of Driver Services for infringing on my constitutional rights.
In Surrey, B.C. the struggle continues.... http://bc.ctvnews.ca/pastafarian-fights-to-wear-colander-in-b-c-driver-s-licence-photo-1.1959706#ixzz3AQ34jckB
Poster Comment:
Is the State of Georgia trying to ban Catholic convert Newt Gingrich from wearing a pope hat, or what?
If they can ban Pastifarians today, they can ban Christians tomorrow.