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News - Every few years a story about number plates and their possible life-threatening meanings rears its head. Now we've had two in six months.

The current kerfuffle involves an Oklahomo student who is suing state officials for not allowing him to purchase the legend "1M GAY", despite the fact that he is in fact gay.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission have ruled that it could be offensive to the general population, but prospective plate owner Keith Kimmel thinks they are guilty of hypocrisy by allowing plates such as "STR8 FAN" and "STR8 SX1".

"I want to tell people who I am and what I am. I'm proud of it. I'm openly gay. I'm not hiding," he told The Oklahoman. "What better way to tell everybody than to put it on the back of a car?"

If you can remember the murky past of 2006, MP Chris Bryant had to battle to get the plate "H8 GAYS" removed, which the DVLA were at first reluctant to do, as it had already been issued and did not cause offense on "political, religious, or racial" grounds. Alistair Darling was eventually pressured into forcing them to withdraw the plate.

Then only last October, when Stonewall opposed the sale of "D1 KES" and " F4 G0T" plates. The DVLA promptly withdrew them, having learned their lesson from the previous incident.

And now, some funny number plates (The last is just for me!):