A Volkswagen covered in rainbow stripes boldly displaying the name Fagbug made an appearance on the Student Center lawn.
The Fagbug was not to spread a message of hate, but rather, a message of tolerance.
Student organization Spectrum, along with the Multicultural center, hosted gay activist Erin Davies and her Fagbug on Thursday. At the event, Davies spoke about her experiences traveling across America in the Fagbug, showed clips of her documentary "Fagbug" based on her experiences and engaged with the audience members.
The car was on display on the Student Center lawn on Thursday afternoon.
In 2007, Davies car was vandalized with the words "fag" and "u r gay." Instead of removing the vandalism, she traveled around the country to encourage dialogue about hate crimes. Davies documented her journey in her film, named after her car, "Fagbug."
Davies sarcastically described finding the writing on her car for the first time.
"I came out that I was gay when I was 17," Davies said. "So writing 'u r gay' on my car was like writing 'Your name is Erin.' I was like, 'No shit, thanks for pointing that out.'"
On the other hand, she shared with students it was not an easy choice for her to decide to make the cross-country trip. Although she lost her girlfriend and many friends soon after she announced the trip, she felt it was important for her to spread the message.
"The last five and a half years are all the things I wanted to say back," Davies said. "I've tried to get revenge by doing the complete opposite [of what they expected me to]. By not removing [the vandalism], I externalized my feelings of shame."
About 80 audience members came out to watch parts of "Fagbug" and hear Davies speak, but many more students on campus were exposed to Davies anti-homophobia message because the Fagbug was on display in the Student Center lawn on Thursday afternoon.
The Volkswagen no longer bears the graffiti, but rainbow stripes with "Fagbug" in large letters on both sides, as it appeared on Thursday.
Spectrum treasurer Jamie Goebel said that having the car on display caused controversy and caught student's attention.
"Some people thought it was offensive or an insult and we explained that it was actually a positive thing and we gave out cards with the website on it," he said. "A lot of people that saw the booth came here and didn't know about it beforehand."
Goebel said he hopes students in the audience paid attention to Davies' message.
"You have to be active to be an activist," he said. "You can't just be a supporter and sit behind, you have to act upon it and go out and try and change what you want to change, not just sit idly by."
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