http://www.wcax.com/story/28826874/...mont-campus-to-raise-awareness-of-hate-crimes
A uniquely colored Volkswagen traveled through Vermont Thursday night.
It's plastered with language many might find offensive, but it is part of a mission to do good.
The car's driver, Erin Davies, is looking to strip the power from an insulting word to spread awareness about hate crimes and homophobia. She's doing it by painting the word "Fagbug" across her rainbow striped car.
Erin Davies once drove a typical, Volkswagen bug that rarely got a second look, until one night in Albany, New York when that changed forever.
"I just had a long skinny rainbow sticker on the back window, and I parked my car one night. Came to it the next morning and saw that somebody wrote ‘faq' on my driver side window, and ‘U R gay' on the whole hood of the car," said Davies.
Davies says she was humiliated at first, but rather than clean off the graffiti, she decided to make a statement and leave the words for all to see. That statement led to an entire car makeover, a new name, and a road trip to talk about hate crimes and homophobia in all 50 states.
"Maybe you don't care about something like that if it doesn't affect you, but all the sudden when the car's on the highway or at the gas station or at the mall or different places, when it's in your personal space, it's getting people to feel what it feels like and care about something a little bit more," said Davies.
On Thursday, the rainbow colored bug made its way to Vermont for a special visit to Johnson State College as part of the school's gay pride week, where it caught students by surprise.
"First thought was: is this for real? Obviously it's kind of an insulting word. You'd imagine people would be offended by it," said senior Simon Dolan.
"People were coming up. They were curious. They were looking through the books. It was the curiosity, it wasn't the necessary, like, ‘oh my gosh, wow,' thing, but it was definitely a curiosity," said Mina Ganguly-Kiefner, with the Johnson State Pride Alliance.
Davies says though many people may first feel uncomfortable seeing her car, she believes the conversation it starts gets people thinking.
She says her visits are designed to teach people about LGBTQ issues and to foster an environment where everyone is treated with respect.
"They're taking back the insult, or changing it to mean something else," said Dolan.
"Some places people might look and you know, go whisper to someone else, or say something about it, but here people seem happy and excited to see it," said Davies.
Davies has made it to all 50 states and in the last 8 years has put more than 300,000 miles on her car.
---------------------------------------------
A uniquely colored Volkswagen traveled through Vermont Thursday night.
It's plastered with language many might find offensive, but it is part of a mission to do good.
The car's driver, Erin Davies, is looking to strip the power from an insulting word to spread awareness about hate crimes and homophobia. She's doing it by painting the word "Fagbug" across her rainbow striped car.
Erin Davies once drove a typical, Volkswagen bug that rarely got a second look, until one night in Albany, New York when that changed forever.
"I just had a long skinny rainbow sticker on the back window, and I parked my car one night. Came to it the next morning and saw that somebody wrote ‘faq' on my driver side window, and ‘U R gay' on the whole hood of the car," said Davies.
Davies says she was humiliated at first, but rather than clean off the graffiti, she decided to make a statement and leave the words for all to see. That statement led to an entire car makeover, a new name, and a road trip to talk about hate crimes and homophobia in all 50 states.
"Maybe you don't care about something like that if it doesn't affect you, but all the sudden when the car's on the highway or at the gas station or at the mall or different places, when it's in your personal space, it's getting people to feel what it feels like and care about something a little bit more," said Davies.
On Thursday, the rainbow colored bug made its way to Vermont for a special visit to Johnson State College as part of the school's gay pride week, where it caught students by surprise.
"First thought was: is this for real? Obviously it's kind of an insulting word. You'd imagine people would be offended by it," said senior Simon Dolan.
"People were coming up. They were curious. They were looking through the books. It was the curiosity, it wasn't the necessary, like, ‘oh my gosh, wow,' thing, but it was definitely a curiosity," said Mina Ganguly-Kiefner, with the Johnson State Pride Alliance.
Davies says though many people may first feel uncomfortable seeing her car, she believes the conversation it starts gets people thinking.
She says her visits are designed to teach people about LGBTQ issues and to foster an environment where everyone is treated with respect.
"They're taking back the insult, or changing it to mean something else," said Dolan.
"Some places people might look and you know, go whisper to someone else, or say something about it, but here people seem happy and excited to see it," said Davies.
Davies has made it to all 50 states and in the last 8 years has put more than 300,000 miles on her car.
---------------------------------------------
