As the result of a complaint from an unnamed citizen, the Commonwealth of Virginia has ordered David Phillips, the man who recently claimed to have a sexual encounter with scandalized Senator Larry Craig, to turn in his vanity license plates, reports the Washington Post's Marc Fisher Sunday. The Washington Post article does not connect Phillips with his earlier claim.
Phillps tells Wonkette that his encounter with the Senator, described as "clumsy and unremarkable," happened during his college days in the Spring of 1987. He had met Craig among a group of, as he describes, "closeted neocons" that regularly cruised younger men at a now defunct Washington gay bar called La Cage aux Follies.
After 11 years, coincidentally, Virginia has caught on to the meaning of a word printed on Phillips' plates, "POOFTER," defined by Merriam-Webster as a "usually disparaging" British slang term referring to a gay man.
"It's just an amusing word that I self-identify with," says Phillips, who says that he's never gotten a complaint about his plate, even after a visit to the British embassy. He's even had the plate "NANCBOY" in the past, with no complaint from the state.
A hearing stands between Phillips and the official loss of his license plates, which he refuses to give up. The prospect of Phillips legally retaining the plates is grim given that the DMV's special review committee doesn't review applications that have been previously approved without receiving a specific complaint.
DMV spokesperson Melanie Stokes had no comment on why, exactly, Phillips' plates are up for review.
As the result of a complaint from an unnamed citizen, the Commonwealth of Virginia has ordered David Phillips, the man who recently claimed to have a sexual encounter with scandalized Senator Larry Craig, to turn in his vanity license plates,