The state of Virginia would like David Phillips to return his license plate NOW (it reads "POOFTER"). Ahh, humorless Virginia: I loves ya.
I'm kind of hoping he goes with his old vanity plate slogan. Snarky queer guy for the win!:
Merriam-Webster says "poofter" is "usually disparaging," and the Oxford English Dictionary calls the word "derogatory slang," but it's routinely aired on broadcast television, and Phillips says it's less disparaging than "nancy boy," which happens to have been his previous license tag message ("NANCBOY," for four years, with no complaint from the state). "Poofter," Phillips contends, "is a pretty neutral word. It gets past any e-mail filter."
Ok, so I've been thinking about buying a new car for the last 4 or 5 months or so (Dear Tres Bien: I take a long time to make decisions. Quiet over there!), and the whole Virginia-as-vanity-plate-heaven thing has made me think a little about whether or not to get vanity plates. Now that I've read the WaPo piece, I'm guessing that "HOMOGAY" or "GOHOMO1" or the like would probably be out of the question?
