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]
