The Indianapolis Star reports the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles unveiled new specialty license plates, the sales of which benefit the Indiana Youth Group, an organization providing services and programs for LGBT teens. The BMV says the new plates will help fund programs at the Indiana Youth Group activity center, build gay-straight alliances in Indiana high schools and help communities form their own youth services.
Special license plates are often used to promote awareness and raise money for nonprofit organizations across a wide political and cultural spectrum. Indiana previously OK’d plates for the National Rifle Association, Habitat for Humanity, Breast Cancer Awareness and many more groups.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled about this new venture. The executive director of the anti-gay American Family Association of Indiana, Micah Clark, told the Christian Post, “I don’t think we should have specialty plates that are political or promote behaviors that are dangerous to minors.”
“I mean, there is no denial—even though a lot of people in the media don’t want to report it—that homosexuality has emotional, physical health risks, spiritual risks that are dramatically higher than heterosexuality.” He didn’t offer specific research to back up his assertion.
Indiana is the second state to offer an LGBT plate. Maryland issued a specialty plate in 2009.
