Erin Davies(I)

Erin Davies Volkswagen Beetle was tagged with the words "fag" and "u r gay" on the driver's side and hood of her car. Rather than get it fixed, she embraced what happened by keeping the graffiti on her car for a year to evoke a dialogue with the general public about homophobia. Not only did she want America to see the spray-painted words, she wanted help with a solution. Her 58-day cross-country trip in the Fagbug led to an award-winning documentary about her adventure. After a year, Erin gave her car a makeover and now tours with her rainbow Volkswagen Beetle, speaking at over 300 colleges and universities across North America to bring awareness of hate crimes and homophobia. Erin's been a guest on BBC, NPR and ABC News, and has been written about in Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Advocate, Curve Magazine, and in Clara Lewis' book titled "Tough On Hate? The Cultural Politics of Hate Crimes." Recently, Erin received her masters in Art Education from Sage College and got married in Manchester, Vermont, to wife and artist collaborator Sonya Parrish. Erin & Sonya reside in Syracuse, NY with their 3 dogs, 3 cats and 2 turtles, and have sold more than 80 paintings they've made together using a unique liquid latex resist painting process.