Back in January, we told you that an LGBT advocacy organization called the Indiana Youth Group had finally been approved for a specialty license plate, after numerous rejections from the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

A couple of weeks ago, we provided an update to that story, mentioning that the plate was in jeopardy thanks to new legislation proposed by Republican representative Ed Soliday of Valparaiso. Thankfully, Soliday’s bill arrived late in the legislative session, so it looked as if the plate would stick around — at least until next year.

But like all lawmakers, Indiana’s Republican conservatives have a way of effecting change in other ways. Furious that our community would have access to an LGBT-friendly license plate for a full year, Republican State Senate President Pro Tempore David Long found an alternate means of canning the plate.

According to Bilerico, the Indiana Youth Group granted a few low-number plates to its major donors, which violated the contract that the group signed with the BMV. The BMV’s former communications director, Graig Lubsen, says that “traditionally, the BMV has allowed group to give out low-numbered plates as thank-you gifts to donors”. However, such activity is technically illegal and was grounds to cancel the contract, thus ending the sale of the group’s plate.

Just so members of the LGBT community don’t feel as if they’re being singled out — though we totally are — the BMV also revoked plates for Greenways Foundation and the Indiana 4-H Foundation due to similar infractions.

Our take?

We don’t have access to the contract that the Indiana Youth Group signed with the BMV, so we don’t know exactly how it’s worded. However, given the number of times that the group’s application for a specialty plate was rejected, it should have been very familiar with the contract and followed it to the letter. Surely the staff understood the GOP’s animosity toward the Youth Group and must’ve forseen the possibility that its contract could be revoked due to the slightest violation. Bending the rules — even if it was in keeping with “tradition” — wasn’t a bright move.

On the other hand, we’ve been around the block often enough to know when a rule is being selectively enforced. Given Lubsen’s comments, we’d be very surprised if conservative organizations hadn’t engaged in the same practices (and are now scurrying to cover their tracks).

The good news is that during the two months that the plates were available, 669 were sold. That’s 669 middle-finger salutes to backward-looking politicians like Soliday and Long. And for member of the LGBT community who didn’t manage to get one in time, you can always show your support with a charitable donation to the Indiana Youth Group and a well-placed rainbow-flag bumper sticker.

One last word of advice to conservatives who continue to express this kind of hatred toward the LGBT community: keep it up, and your days in office are numbered.