Pastafarian Woman Allowed to Wear Colander in Driver’s License Photo After Appeal

Lindsay Miller battled with the RMV for the right to wear the metal strainer on her head as a sign of what her religion is.

A spokesman for the MA Registry of Motor Vehicles says policy does not permit head coverings or hats on license photos, but exceptions are made for religious reasons.

Lindsay Miller, one of the followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster church was denied originally by the Registry of Motor Vehicles in MA but this decision had been overturned very soon.

She opted to wear a strainer on her head as part of her religious observance, she added, much the same way that other religions have their own headwear of choice.

She’s a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which, according to WCVB in Boston, believes that “heaven is a place with a “beer volcano” and ‘stripper factory'”.

The RMV’s shifting position on the photo did not reflect an evaluation of Pastafarianism, or Miller’s beliefs, according to Verseckes.

Miller got legal help from the American Humanist Association. She said she aims to set an example to her fellow Pastafarian atheists to “come out” and express themselves without fear.

Miller was scheduled to attend a hearing in October regarding the subject, but that was postponed and the state’s RMV opted to allow her to wear the colander for her driver’s license photo late last week.

When Miller applied initially for the driver’s license, officials at the RMV would not allow her to have her photo taken wearing the colander. “We appreciate that the RMV recognized the error, apologized, and issued a license respecting her First Amendment rights, and hope that RMV staff will be trained to respect diversity”. “But my understanding, and my view of it, is that it’s a secular religion that uses parody to make certain points about a belief system”, said DeJuneas.

The Pastafarians are a loose organization that hold the existence of a Flying Spaghetti Monster is as likely as the existence of a Christian deity.