'Bug' brings 'shocking word' to BSU
08th October 2008
As students walked by Erin Davies' rainbow-painted Volkswagen Beetle on Ball State University's campus, some of them gave confused looks at the word "fagbug" written on the side.
"It seems like it's kind of contradictory," Ball State University junior Josh Zimmerman said, "but obviously, it's part of a gay rights group because it's rainbow colors."
At a stone picnic table nearby, New York native Erin Davies explained the story of the "Fagbug" to curious passersby.
Davies never intended to drop out of Sage Graduate School in Troy, New York. She never intended to lose many of her friends there. And she never intended to drive her car across the country to educate people about homosexuality.
And when someone decided to spray paint the word "fag" on her gray Volkswagen bug on April 18, 2007, because she had a rainbow sticker in her back window, she completely intended to get it fixed right away.
"Initially, I wanted nothing to do with it," 30-year-old Davies said. "It's humiliating, you know?"
But when issues with her insurance forced her to live with the vandalized vehicle for a few days, she eventually decided to drive it around to see how people would react.
"It's a very shocking word," she said. "People aren't expecting to see it."
The first day she tested it out, she parked her bug in front of the admissions building at her university. There were around 50 complaints about the car, she said.
So, she kept driving.
"At first I thought I would drive it for a week, and I ended up driving it for a year," Davies said.
In fact, Davies came up with the idea to travel to 58 cities throughout the year and document how people reacted to the car.
Over the year, many people were angry about the car, Davies said. She recalled driving through Bloomington, Ind., one day and getting pulled over by a police officer, who then tried to remove the paint with his fingernails. In two cases, rocks were thrown through her windows. And even people in the gay community have spoken out against the project, she said.
"A lot of people in the gay community boycotted me," including the friends of her former girlfriends in New York, Davies said.
Others, however, have gone to great lengths to help. When she was in Los Angeles, she woke up one morning in her car with her windows completely covered in soap. Someone was trying to clean the offensive graffiti off.
"A lot of people tried to remove the graffiti," she said.
The Volkswagen corporation even agreed to pay for Davies to repaint the car rainbow colors, reimbursed her for the gas and repairs for her 58-day trip and helped fund her documentary, which she plans to release in January. In total, Davies estimated that Volkswagen has given her around $12,000 to help fund her project in their efforts to promote diversity.
Davies has spoken at around 40 schools in the country since her year-long trip ended, she said, including Ball State.
"We thought that this would really grab people's attention," Spectrum secretary and Ball State student Jacinta Yanders said, adding that Spectrum brings in a speaker every year to talk about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.
Throughout the month, Spectrum will host a series of events as part of PROUD, which stands for People Recognizing Our Unique Differences.
For more information about Spectrum, go to www.bsu.edu/spectrum. For information about "Fagbug," go to www.fagbug.com.
Source: The Star Press