Arizona Pastafarian Finally Gets License with Colander on His Head

Photo via ABC15 screenshot
Photo via ABC15 screenshot
Sean Corbett’s act was to shore up religious freedom

Sean Corbett, a resident of Chandler, in Arizona state, finally received his state driver’s license after years of constant trying. The photo on the license showed the 36-year-old American posing with a spaghetti strainer perched on his head. He was incidentally the first one from Arizona to successfully pull it off. Unfortunately, his victory could be brief. Arizona state officials have said that they will take steps to recall the license. Corbett says that all the hard work he has done to obtain the license was actually a religious freedom act.

Arizona Pastafarian Finally Gets License with Colander on His Head[/tweetthis]

The Arizona Department of Transportation is not amused. This department oversees the state's Motor Vehicle Division. In its public statement, the ID photos and the MVD license are taken to show the driver's daily appearance. The photo taking requirements will accommodate medical or religious expression needs. All photos get filtered via facial recognition technology. In case of an error, a particular photograph can be recalled. Doug Nick, the spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Transportation, underlined the seriousness of his department when he said that the latter will do everything to cancel this credential. Corbett is not backing down. He said that no valid reasons exist to cancel his driver’s license.

Corbett has an excellent reason for doing such a stunt. He said that his actions will hopefully light up the way for people belonging to religions other than Christianity to dress up as they please in their license photos. He wants to make sure that these individuals will not face the same kind of resistance as he suffered.

Sean Corbett has a long belief in respecting others and never judging them. He accidentally came across the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. These quasi-religious views are known as Pastafarianism.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster promotes a satiric view of religion. The church came into existence in 2005. The main aim of the church was to criticize the schools which taught intelligent design along with evolution. Since then, it has become a byword for the social movement for freedom of expression and religion. 

According to Corbett, his first attempt to take a driver’s license photo by wearing a colander on his head was attempted in 2014. He was rebuffed every time from different locations of the government's Motor Vehicle Division. After a lot of tries, he finally got his driver's license with his desired photo in 2017. 

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