Lawsuit gets gay advocacy license plates allowed in Georgia

ATLANTA, July 3 (UPI) -- A Georgia lawyer said her client successfully sued to get a "GAY PWR" license plate resulting in the state lifting its ban on gay advocacy vanity plates.

Cyrus Gilbert said he filed his lawsuit with the help of lawyer Cynthia Counts after he discovered his attempts to get "4 GAY LIB," "GAY GUY" and "GAY POWER" license plates were rejected due to a state ban on gay advocacy tags, WSB-TV, Atlanta, reported Wednesday.

"It doesn't cause harm to anyone. It is not vulgar in any way and it is my choice," said Gilbert.

Counts said decisions on which plates to approve and which to reject were made arbitrarily prior to the lawsuit. She said the lawsuit resulted in the state clearly defining acceptable and unacceptable content for personalized plates and Georgia now allows gay advocacy messages on the tags.

"This was blatantly unconstitutional, needed to be challenged," Counts said.

Gilbert said his new plates arrived Tuesday.

"It's all about progress. It's another step forward," Gilbert said.