Texas Revokes Femboy's Yaoi License Plate, But He's Fighting Back
On July 10, femboy car enthusiast Amber — known on social media as aSpicyCow — got a letter from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles revoking his A90 Toyota Supra's vanity license plate. The DMV claimed the plate, which reads I♥YAOI, violated state law against "indecent" plates — a term the state defines as "including a direct reference or connotation to a sexual act, sexual body parts, excreta, or sexual bodily fluids or functions." Now, Amber is fighting back, and trying to get the yaoi plate reinstated.
"I filed an appeal and won't hear back for a month," Amber (not me) told me (a different Amber) via Instagram DM. He'd only had the plate for "a few months" before someone complained to the Texas DMV, which prompted this letter — though the plate did feature prominently on his social media posts, which he thinks is related: "I think someone off social media filed a complaint [...] you don't know what yaoi is unless ur a consumer of it." He expects, for this reason, the plate will likely be cleared on appeal just like it was on his initial reservation: "[R]ealistically whoever reviews the plate won't know what it is again and I'll get it re approved."
Yaoi isn't necessarily explicit
Even if Amber does end up appealing his plate to the one fujoshi in the Texas DMV system, he seems likely to win. Yaoi as a genre isn't specifically pornographic, but refers to the broad range of male/male romance stories — if two guys slow-burn to a climactic kiss, that's not indecent by Texas' definition but it is yaoi. Amber's other license plates, BOY♥KISR and UR♥CUTE, haven't yet been revoked by the state, despite Amber having had the former for almost two years. If kissing boys is obscene, Texas should at least be consistent.
In the event Amber does have to replace the plate, he mentioned YAOI♥LVR as a possibility for the A90 to wear — or, perhaps, he could expand into the world of girls' love and "get like a yuri plate or something [...] whatever is loud and gets accepted." Given that Amber's car collection includes the pink A90 Supra, a dark purple A80 Supra, and a white Lamborghini Huracan Performante, a new plate will have to be pretty loud to match the volume of his garage.