A pagan priest was issued a state ID from Maine this month that includes his “spiritual antenna” — goat horns.
Phelan Moonsong, 56, of Millinocket calls himself a pagan minister and a priest of Pan. He was denied the ability to take his driver’s license photo in August with horns, but he was mailed the ID card this month after telling officials he was in touch with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“A lot of Pagans are in the closet and — as with the LGBT crowd — there’s a lot of misconceptions and discrimination that they face,” Mr. Moonsong, who recently changed his name, told The Washington Post on Saturday. “I’ve come to feel very attached to the horns, and they’ve become a part of me and part of my spirituality. The horns are part of my religious attire.”
A spokeswoman for the Maine secretary of state told the Bangor Daily News on Dec. 12 that Mr. Moonsong did not initially “cite religious reasons” for wearing the horns, a claim which he disputes.
“[Officials] told me that I had to send in some documentation or religious text to show why it was required for me to have my horns on,” Mr. Moonsong told The Post. “I said, ’OK, I’ll go ahead and do that,’ but it seemed like an onerous requirement.”
The man added that he sent state officials an essay titled “Pagan Religions: A Handbook for Diversity Training.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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