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Arizona Pastafarian wears strainer in driver's license photo for religious purposes

Posted at 10:18 PM, May 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-01 10:01:53-04

Sean Corbett drives for a living as a Lyft and Uber Driver.

His driver's license is crucial to making the ends meet for his household, but there's one big catch.

"Pastafarianism is part of the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which says the World was created 5,000 years ago by a Flying Spaghetti Monster," explained Corbett.

Sean admits his religion is satirical. Some would even say it's ridiculous.

He wears a spaghetti colander he purchased at Goodwill on his head and it's secured by an elastic chin strap. Sean calls it religious headwear and says the MVD refused to allow him to wear it in his driver's license photo.

"It's kind of been a personal mission to keep pushing and not let the naysayers say I can't," said Corbett.

Sean says he tried for two years and visited several MVD locations but he was turned down.

Recently, a Chandler MVD location allowed him to take a picture with the colander and within weeks, his new ID came in the mail.

"The whole process is intimidating, especially when people are yelling at you and scorning you for making a mockery out of their system," added Corbett.

Sean's new ID is now in hot water.
State officials now saying facial recognition software failed to weed out the photo and says they are going to void

the photo and the ID.

"This has been this type of discrimination, and religious persecution that I've been going through for the last couple of years," said Corbett.

An Arizona Department of Transportation spokesperson says there are exceptions made for religious headwear and medical needs, however, this type of display won't be allowed.

Sean says this fight is far from over and he plans legal action.

He added that if there's an exception made for one religion, there needs to be exceptions for all religions.

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