Finally, some good news out of the year 2016. A Pagan priest can wear his goat horns in his driver's license photo, Maine's Bureau of Motor Vehicles has ruled.
When Phelan Moonsong went to get his license photo taken, he wore a pair of goat horns attached to his head with elastic, 50-pound fishing line. An official ordered him to remove the horns for his state-issued ID, but Moonsong objected, telling them the horns are his "spiritual antenna." Moonsong said he wears the horns every day.
"As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan, I've come to feel very attached to the horns, and they've become a part of me and part of my spirituality," Moonsong told the Washington Post. "The horns are part of my religious attire."
Moonsong felt so strongly, he wrote to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and asked for a religious exemption. He sent in a personal essay talking about the significance of the horns and cited four scholarly works to back up his claims.
Miraculously, Moonsong was victorious. Lucky him. A pastafarian was denied the right to wear a colander in her license photo earlier this year.
