Taking a license photo is a very serious affair. Make one little mistake and the photo could come to haunt you -- for years.
Over in Lowell, Massachusetts, Lindsay Miller recently won the right to wear an enormous colander on her head in her driver's license photo. Miller is a practicing Pastafarian and member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a satirical religion known for their pasta-based iconography.
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Currently, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles doesn’t allow people to wear hats or head coverings in their photos, except for religious reasons. The registry previously refused to allow Miller to wear a strainer, but the American Humanist association actually filed an appeal on her (and her colander’s) behalf.
The registry reversed its decision before the appeal was heard.
RMV allows "Pastafarian" woman to wear pasta strainer on her head in driver's license photo https://t.co/RNXN47APUi pic.twitter.com/27liUG23ni— WBZ Boston News (@cbsboston) November 13, 2015
Lawyer Patty DeJuneas said that Pastafarianism is a “secular religion that uses parody to make its point.”
Miller said that Pastafarian website has been around for hundreds of years, and only entered the mainstream 10 years ago.
“While I don’t think the government can involve itself in matters of religion, I do hope this decision encourages my fellow Pastafarian Atheists to come out and express themselves as I have,” Miller told CBS-Boston.