Earlier this week, Nathan Kirk made national headlines after challenging the Alabama Department of Revenue over its recall of his license plate that the bureaucratic entity declared to be “offensive.”
Following Kirk’s stand for what he declares to be his First Amendment rights, Yellowhammer News sought clarity with the Alabama Department of Revenue regarding what it considers to be “offensive” speech on license plates.
The department responded to the inquiry in an email stating, “The department does not allow the ‘f-word’, or any acronym for such, on a personalized license plate. That is the department’s only issue with this plate.”
However, Kirk maintains that his “LGBFJB” license plate holds no insinuation of the f-word as the department assumes.
In his response to the assumption in a conversation he held with a department representative, Kirk suggested that, given those standards, every tag which had a letter that could possibly be interpreted as representing an offensive word should be recalled.
“I said, ‘Well, if that is the case, I can tell you that my tag does not stand for the f-word as you’re seeing it,” Kirk said he told the department. “But what’s to say if I go out in the parking lot and every Alabama tag with the letter ‘F’ in it, since the letter ‘F’ is offensive, needs to be removed? You guys need to recall every tag that has the letter ‘F’ in it’… They answered adamantly that they had no plans for mass recalls.”
He adds, “In all honesty, I never meant it to represent the word that they have in their mind,” advising that the tag’s acronym stands for “Let’s Go Brandon, Forget Joe Biden.”
The department did not respond to Yellowhammer News’ inquiry concerning the process for determining what is “objectionable” wording on personalized license plates. Kirk stated the department told him that “reviewers” declare if a plate is acceptable.
Kirk said that he is optimistic that the license plate issue will be resolved at the county level and that he would be able to maintain his current personalized plate.
Given the widespread coverage Kirk received after his story made rounds in national media, he has faced public condemnation from left-wing social media users. He said leftists have directed derogatory and vulgar comments toward his family.
In addition to being subjected to disparaging comments, Kirk asserted his personal Facebook page was handed a 30-day suspension after the story broke.
“That was sheerly because there was a bunch of liberals coming to my page,” he said. “My wife’s business page got tons of Google reviews, after AL(dot)com released their story, just bashing us, telling us our family was ugly all kinds of stuff, leaving my wife reviews on her salon page saying that she was a nasty person and that her salon was nasty and they wouldn’t recommend it… people from New Hampshire.”
Kirk, owner of Blount County Tactical, an Oneonta-based firearms store, said he has consistently struggled with Facebook censoring his business page.
“So, people started reporting my page and I started reporting them,” added Kirk. “Facebook doesn’t review any of them leaving comments saying they hope my family dies, but they do suspend me for sharing my business page two months before that.”
Kirk told Yellowhammer News that he is reviewing his options to take legal action against the Silicon Valley tech giant.
“I want Mark Zuckerberg to know my name,” proclaimed a defiant Kirk.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
