A Maine pagan priest won the right to wear goat horns in a state-issued identification card on Dec. 14, months after the Bureau of Motor Vehicles told him to remove them for an ID photo.
After telling the Bureau that he had contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, Phelan Moonsong, 56, received his horns-inclusive ID in the mail within days. The Bureau had previously told him to appeal its decision to Maine’s secretary of state.
Moonsong argued that the horns, which he has been wearing since 2009, are a part of his religious attire.
“As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan, I’ve come to feel very attached to the horns, and they’ve become a part of me and part of my spirituality,” he told The Washington Post. “The horns are part of my religious attire.”
Women who cover their hair for religious reasons and men who wear religious headgear have often been accommodated in government-issued ID photos. Moonsong argued that his case was similar. His supporters noted that the horns didn’t obscure his face in any way.
