Towleroad Interview: Fagbug's Erin Davies

On April 18, 2007, The National Day of Silence, a still unidentified person spray-painted the words "fAg" and "U R gay" on Erin Davies' Volkswagon New Beetle. Since then, the openly lesbian Davies (she's been out since she was a teen) has driven the so-called "fagbug," which now sports a sleeker, more colorful look, to almost every state in the country to speak to people about hate and acceptance. She's even made a documentary film about her momentous journeys in the famous Beetle. I caught up with her just before the fast approaching four-year anniversary of the life-changing act of vandalism on her car.

SP: Do you ever get lonely on your solo travels throughout the country?

ED: Sure, I get lonely. It gives you a lot of time to contemplate things. Driving so much however forces me to make the most of my experience once I arrive at my destination. Given that my car is a moving dialogue it pulls people in to talk to me wherever I stop on my way so even though I may be traveling alone, I'm not usually alone in my travels. Sometimes people talk to me so much on my stops, I wish I was able to do things uninterrupted like get gas, food, or whatnot.

SP: Are you still with your girlfriend?

ED: The relationship I was in when this venture began didn't withstand my 58 day road trip around the country. I am in a new relationship with my partner, Sonya. We're engaged to be married September 17th in Manchester, Vermont. We create beautiful paintings together and compliment one another in many ways.

SP: How does she feel about you being away so often?

ED: Sonya is very understanding of what I do. When I'm around I'm 100% around and available. When I'm not we talk for hours and make the most of it. She travels with me as much as her schedule allows.

SP: Have you ever been given any clues as to who may have vandalized your car back in April of 2007,,?

ED: A few days after my car was vandalized, someone stopped me one night at midnight telling me they saw the person who vandalized my car the night it happened. They said it was a male in a white car. A few days later I received a note saying, "it's a shame you made this up." The note had all the A's capitalized and the other letters lower case. It was the same writing as my car. I interviewed the person who left the note since they left their phone number. His name is Dan. I don't think he vandalized my car, but some people think he did. He's the only suspect I ever had.

The rest of the interview, AFTER THE JUMP.

Sage Student Erin Davies Turns Hate into Tolerance Campaign

Erin Davies, a student at Sage College in New York, was targeted by anti-gay vandals when her VW Beetle was sprayed with the words "U R gay" and fag" in mid-April, most likely because the vehicle has a rainbow sticker affixed to its bumper. The incident occurred on the national "Day of Silence" in which students across the country use silence as a means to bringing awareness to intolerance and homophobia.

Instead of having the car cleaned up, Davies says she plans to use it to spread a message of tolerance and take it on a cross-country trip this summer with the hateful messages still emblazoned across its windows.

She told Capital News 9, "I'm sure I'm not the first person this has happened to, but I might be the first person who has been okay driving it around, putting it out there and letting people become more aware of it and decide, you know, how do we stop this from happening?"

Davies has started a website called FagBug to chronicle her activism. She says she plans to have people attach "FagBug" stickers to her VW as she travels across country.

On Monday, students at Sage college held a rally to support Davies. She told the Troy Record, "I came out 12 years ago, so this isn't news to me. But even as I drove through my neighborhood in the rental car, I was stopped by friends and acquaintances and asked what I planned to do next. I want to make this visible so people can see that hate crimes still happen."

FagBug [official site]
Hate crime turned into educational campaign [troy record]
Sage students march to promote tolerance [capital news 9]