Wow. What a slap in the face for the people who did it. I love it.

My first reaction on reading this: "why did they spraypaint 'Uruguay' on her car?" Coffee is my friend.

Anyway: awesome. The only way it could be better is if in addition to driving it across the US and Canada, she also drove it across the feet of the morons who did that to her car.

*hee*hee* Alex.

I agree, this chick is super. Using stupidity like this to open people's minds and bring them together to discuss important topics... Awesome.

awesome.

awesome indeed.

Good on her! The people who do these acts in the heat of the moment and toss words around so flippantly are generally unaware of how ridiculous and harmful they are. When confronted with these words in such a matter-of-fact way, hopefully it will cause the perpetrators and others to examine their own prejudices and beliefs.

I read the "fag" on the car in the picture as "faq" and was very confused. This is fantastic, and I love her new sticker.

I think that's just so cool. It does two things that are positive. First, she's showing the people who did it that she's not afraid of homophobes and that she'll turn their hate into a positive thing by educating people. Second, since other people, most likely gay and straight, were freaked out by it, it shows that hate crimes against homosexuals hurt all kinds of people. It tells people that if you're in this neighborhood and someone doesn't like you, they might destroy your property or even worse. If someone is going to spray paint "fag" on that girl's car, who's to say that those same people won't spray paint "spic" on my car? It makes me wonder when people are going to understand that hate crimes should be taken seriously.

I just noticed that they spray painted "u r gay." I thought that was funny because she already knows that she's gay. And since she has the rainbow sticker on her car, she doesn't care if people know it. As if they couldn't get any dumber.

That is so awesome.

Made my afternoon! To add to FEMily's points - it might also be considered a reclamation of the words "fag" and "gay"; if we don't show fear or embarrassment at being called these words, they lose a bit of their derogatory power.

FEM, your point that everyone else was freaked out is also a great one - it's really interesting that the influence of these words on people beyond Erin is what actually backfires on the hate-criminal.

And those two things are related: she's reclaimed the way these words are being interpreted by exposing them to a new audience, the general public.

Right on, Erin.

To Lancastrian's point: Yes, the perpretrator was trying to link to his FAQ page (and is currently wondering why said page isn't getting any hits). In any event, his FAQ page consists of just one frequently asked question:

Q. Are you just a contemptible asshat?
A. Yes. Yes, I am.

Good for her! She sounds really amazing.

I went to a very conservative college in Southern California. I was pretty much the campus pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-war, pro-sex punching bag (I had a sex talk show on the radio, staged numerous protests, and was known to slap the occasional bumper sticker on my car). In my three and a half years there, this is a list of the shit that was done to me:

Had "SLUT!" screamed at me walking around campus at night so many times I lost count
Had "slut" "whore" and "bitch" written on my dorm door white board so many times I lost count
Had "slut" spray painted in red across my dorm door
Rocks thrown at my dorm window
Posters torn off my dorm door
Had my car COVERED in Bush bumper stickers
Lost count of how many bumper stickers were ripped off my car
Christmas tree flocking all over my car
Tires slashed FIVE times
Paint keyed three times
Over ten threats and nasty letters left under my windshield
Men's underwear left wrapped around my antenna and also on my car door handle
Had a bomb thrown under my car which, when detonated, could be heard across campus
The kicker: FAT CUNT painted in white housepaint across the driver's side of my car in HUGE letters (a little beside the point but still relevant: I am 5'4 and 120 pounds)

Yeah, I relate, and it sucks. Public Safety and the police's reaction to every complaint: "Well, what do you expect? Don't be so outspoken." Nice.

Bravo! What a great and brave thing she is doing!

Bravo! What a great and brave thing she is doing!

*stands*

APPLAUDS.

I once had "F--- YOU" keyed into the hood of my station wagon; I'm not sure who did it or why, but my station wagon didn't have any bumper stickers on it at the time. I suppose it doesn't have much to do with the topic at hand, but I wanted to post something anyway because I think what she's doing is pretty cool.

Go Erin!

TheSoyMilkConspiracy-

I'm proud of you for being able to still be true to yourself in such a hostile environment. I can hardly believe all those things happened to one person and I'm really sorry they did.

Did the school not try to find out who bombed your car at least?

Awesome story, thank you.

As much as I would like to think of myself as a badass, I'm not sure I would have thick enough skin to drive the "fag bug" all over town. Thank God for people like Erin Davies.

T:

Yeah. It was pretty unbelievable. I got to a point where I wasn't even surprised, which is awful. Imagine my rage when our school newspaper ran THREE articles about the supposed "hatred" and "attempted censorship" of the College Republicans after two of their posters got ripped down after the 2004 election. I was like "um, HELLO!?"

Public Safety never investigated the car bombing further than shining flashlights around the parking structure the night it happened. Thankfully, there was no damage (it was hella loud but apparently not destructive) so even though it was one of the scariest things that's ever happened to me, nah...not so important to the cops. As I mentioned before, they weren't exactly my best buds.

I'm glad Erin's neighbors appear to be supportive of her and her mission. When your shit is vandalized because of who you are and what you believe, it sucks. But when your entire community not only believes you deserve it, but brought it on yourself, it's fucking devastating.

Sidenote: before I figured out how to remove the "Fat Cunt" paint from my car, I drove around with it on for a week. It was embarrassing for about 5 minutes, and then strangely empowering in a "look what sexist, judgmental assholes people are" type of way. I LOVE what Erin's doing!

"As much as I would like to think of myself as a badass, I'm not sure I would have thick enough skin to drive the 'fag bug' all over town. Thank God for people like Erin Davies."

I'm not sure I would have enough driving skills to drive a car with anything covering up part of the driver's side window. Maybe the vandal was trying to suppress Davises's mobility? Erin Davies is a better driver than I (and yay for mass transit so I don't need a car).

SoyMilk conspiracy: OmG, that is so scary!
I went to Rutgers, which is known as a pretty liberal school, especially the New Brunswick campus, but I went to Newark which is more conservative. I had to deal with some shit but nothing at that level. Kudos for not backing down though.
The main issue I've been dealing with lately is the feminists, radical feminists, anarchafeminists, & feministing groups on Myspace being spammed/hacked by a sociopath posting pics of aborted fetuses etc.

The "fag bug" sticker is ever so cute. If I had a car, I'd buy one.

as a resident of albany, myself, i am ashamed and surprised that this happened here. the reason i say this is that the day of silence was always one of the most well-attended programs in albany high school, and the climate among the youth was very inclusive.
however, i am super proud of erin for showing the world what she's made of.

as a resident of albany, myself, i am ashamed and surprised that this happened here. the reason i say this is that the day of silence was always one of the most well-attended programs in albany high school, and the climate among the youth was very inclusive.
however, i am super proud of erin for showing the world what she's made of.

as a resident of albany, myself, i am ashamed and surprised that this happened here. the reason i say this is that the day of silence was always one of the most well-attended programs in albany high school, and the climate among the youth was very inclusive.
however, i am super proud of erin for showing the world what she's made of.

This reminds me of the FAG shirts that we sold at flaming lips shows a few years back (on the yoshimi tour).

The shirt had a picture of a man with a beard and it said "FlAminG lips" where the FAG was in like billion point font and the rest of the letters were in like negative a billion point font...creating the impression that the shirt said "FAG" from far away.

I love those shirts...I need to look for one:)

And yes, defacing someones personal property because of their identity is a heinous crime that shouldn't be allowed anywhere in our society. Especially when that action is used to provoke terror. Kudos to Erin for not letting these idiots terrorize her.

This is an incredible story! Go Erin!

She went to my high school! I'm so proud to sorta know someone so brave and awesome . . .

But how will we reconcile her prominent and sexy clavicles with her blatant queer activism?

Erin rocks! if I were a tad younger...

When I saw this, I thought of Queer as Folk, where a similar thing happened to Brian Kinney in the first episode.

But that's beside the point, and Erin Davies owns Kinney. Rock on.

Erin, U Go girl. you are an inspiration to us all!

Erin, U Go girl. you are an inspiration to us all!

I got to see Erin and her fag bug yesterday at the San Diego Pride parade =)