"Potentially Offensive" Number (license) plates withdrawn

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Browsing through the BBC News pages, as is my daily wont, I came across this little item concerning number (licence) plates being withdrawn from an auction because they might cause offence to gay people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/8290413.stm

I have been wracking my meagre brain to think of any number plates that might be offensive to the TG community.

Gabi

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Well .....

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The fist that comes to mind is

S1SSY

or

N4NCY

or maybe

F41RYS (fairys)

Anyone got any others?

Sam

The ones I have seen

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Were on cars of people I knew, like in the Bay Area one girl has an older white Mercedes that says ICD-4U, locally we had a client whose plate said T-GIRL
Personally I'd not advertise the fact.
OK maybe when I was younger I might have gone for SXL-DV8 or just DV8. I think I saw more risque plates in the Bay Area than I have anywhere else like a Rolls with the plate RCH-FKR and a nice Mercedes coupe with the plate T1H2-HO, I knew that had to mean something so I took another look after I passed her, in mr rearview it plainly said OH SHIT

license to offend

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laika's picture

Surprised that the T1H2-HO plate got past them. I'd heard they were trained to look out for mirror gags like this. They denied someone who requested the somewhat more innocuous 3M TA3...

Funny how things change, that governments now looking out for messages that they fear will be offensive to gays (nevermind that this presumes to speak for all gays, instead of just a humorless few...), when 25 or so years ago in California there was a stink about someone being denied a plate that said GAYLIB; I guess because they felt it was offensive to straights, an affront to morality, quack quack quack ....... I wonder if they'd issue me my GIRLYMAN plate, after Governor Arnold's getting reamed for using that term?
~~~hugs, Laika

.
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.

The Intolerance of Tolerance

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We also have to make sure vanity plates like, 'GODSAVZ' or 'GODZGOOD' are also banned, as these plates and the sentiment they express will be offensive to those who do not believe in God.

If we, who are screaming for tolerance are going to be intolerant to those who do not agree one hundred percent with everything we say and do, then we must help other 'Tolerant' people crush those whose words they find offensive and intolerable.

Up the First Amendment!

Nancy Cole


~ ~ ~

"You may be what you resolve to be."

T.J. Jackson

Wisconsin Tourisim Federation made the news, WTF!

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Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, a Chicago based Public radio comedy quiz show based on real things in the news reported that the tourism organization, founded in 1979, had to change it's name when due to the popularity of texting the abreviation of it's name became a on-line term for surprise, and not a clean term or so it is claimed.

Another victim of our dynamic language and political correctness.

All I can say is WTF!

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

I Saw That...

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Apparently the World Taekwondo Federation is hanging in there, however. It appears that they'd beaten Wisconsin to the wtf.org designation anyway.

Eric

White-Wolf Publishing...

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...when it came time to release the newest version of their table-top roleplaying game about werewolves, decided to strip the game of the environmental angst-ridden meta-plot the old game had used, and as part of that process decided to rename it from Werewolf: the Apocalypse to Werewolf: the Forsaken. Fairly early on after that change in the revision project, the writers there being who they are, they noticed the abbreviation and decided to run with it. The promotional t-shirts, and several other of the promotional materials for the game, therefor, were created in a prominent prison-jumpsuit orange, with the initials "WTF" stenciled in large face in a nice black ink on them. At the Origins roleplaying industry convention that year, evidently, you could hear groups of people yell out together "WTF" at the most interesting times.

For offensive plates, I can't think of any stories around here, though a friend of a friend did have an amusing one: "BBLBROX". ^__^

-Liz

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"

Banned plates are nothing new

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Religious ones have been banned for yonks now, so don't expect to see anyone driving J 3 SUS or A 1 LAH...

But the whole issue reminds me of when I was at uni, and the rag (student charity fundraising society) bought two new minibuses with custom plates:

P 3 RAG
P 5 RAG

Unsurprisingly, they didn't buy the number in between - "as most of you are perfectly capable of doing that anyway!"

 
 
--Ben

This space intentionally left blank.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

I can think of several

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erin's picture

But I won't do so here. But I do have a funny story about banned plates.

Peter Schmuck is a sports reporter for the Balimersun, now, but he's a California native and years ago both he and my brother worked at the OC Register. While visiting my brother at the paper, I noticed a vanity plate in the parking garage that read, "SCHMUCK". I mentioned to my brother that I was surprised that anyone could get such a plate.

Don laughed and told me that Peter Schmuck worked at the paper and that when the DMV refused his request for that plate on the grounds of obscenity, that he had threatened to get the story printed in the paper that the DMV thought his last name was obscene. They caved.

I asked Don, "Is his first name really Peter?"

And Don said, "I'm just glad I didn't have a mouthful of something when they introduced us."

"His parents have a weird sense of humor," I said.

"So does he," Don agreed.

He's also a very funny guy and a nice fellow who once studied to be a dentist, of all things.

'Schmuck' is not really obscene, it's Yiddish slang for penis but its real meaning is something between, 'smudge', 'ornament' and 'doodad' -- or what we Arkies might call a 'dingleberry'. Which can also be a little vulgar....

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Mary Dick

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Years ago, I did some work for a woman who was the widow of the owner of the local newspaper. Her name was Mary Dick. Anyone care to guess what her husband's name was?

You give up? Harry Dick.

True story.

Khadija

A Number Of Us...

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...in a fantasy baseball league a couple of dozen years back were rooting for Roger Schmuck, a top Kansas City draft choice in the 1970s, to make the jump to the majors. Sadly, never happened.

Also about that time, a large hotel in downtown Los Angeles that apparently catered to German tourists had a jewelry store on its lobby level, with bilingual cards in the rooms calling its guests' attention to it. Don't remember the owner's name but the German version read something like "Grant P. Tyler, Schmuck..." (The American version said something like "Grant P. Tyler, a leader in fine jewelry...")

Eric

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