Further proving our point that many Americans don’t think Maine is actually a state, a TikTok user has taken to the platform to bemoan the fact that bouncers at bars in other states reject her Maine ID.
TikTok user bigkhakis originally shared a post on Nov. 8 detailing an experience she had being rejected from a bar by a bouncer because he didn’t believe her Maine driver’s license was real.
“Maine licenses are real licenses. People actually live in Maine, I promise,” she said in the video. “I know if you’re a bouncer you don’t want to believe this information. If you’re a bartender I know it’s the benefit of the doubt you do not want to give it to us, but I swear to God, it’s a real license. There’s a cute little pine tree. There’s fish.”
Commenters quickly weighed in to point out that other states like Wyoming and Hawaii also experience the same sort of scrutiny from bouncers, TSA officials and other ID-checkers.
Viral content aggregator Distractify picked up the story Wednesday morning. Though the writer at one point bewilderingly refer to Bangor as Maine’s “alleged” “capitol” (sic) city, they did cite the Bangor Daily News article from this past summer that talked about how many Americans don’t think Maine is actually a state.
In that story, we interviewed a number of current and former Mainers who shared their tales of nearly being denied boarding on flights, being rejected by potential business clients and receiving general skepticism from the public at large, when they tell people they are from Maine or show their Maine IDs.
It’s a phenomenon that is all too common — but as we stated in that story, it just adds to the overall mystique of our unique state, tucked up in the far northeastern corner of the country.

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