Erin Davies said she hopes someday to meet the person who scrawled “fag” on her car three years ago, permanently altering the course of her life.

The Post-Standard reported on Erin Davies (left) and Sonya Parrish stand outside the building at 412 Oswego St., Syracuse, that they are planning to turn into a museum for the Fagbug, a Volkswagen Beetle that Davies drove across the country.

As the article relates:
Erin Davies said she hopes someday to meet the person who scrawled “fag” on her car three years ago, permanently altering the course of her life.

“At the core, I’m hoping that will happen,” said Davies, 32, of Syracuse. “I’m not expecting it. But by keeping at this, by continuing to do what I’m doing — you know what? Anything is a possibility.”

If such optimism sounds like something from a movie, perhaps Davies can be forgiven. She went and made one.

Davies’ 2009 documentary, “Fagbug,” chronicles her reaction to the vandalism, which took place in Albany, where she was studying art. Somebody spray-painted “fag” and “u r gay” on her Volkswagen Beetle, an act that Davies — who is gay — viewed as an attempt to taunt and intimidate.

Instead of scrubbing it clean, she let the paint dry and drove the country for 58 days, talking to people and filming their reactions to the car and its message. The resulting 83-minute movie has aired at 35 film festivals and appeared on about 70 college campuses and forums. It won sponsorships from Volkswagen Group of America and the Sundance Film Festival, and was dubbed “best gay car movie of the year” by Vanity Fair magazine. Its DVD release, scheduled for July 13, will be commemorated in a Syracuse public showing a few nights later.

“Once the whole idea started taking off — well, ever since, it’s been unique,” said Davies, a 1996 Westhill graduate, whose odyssey has led to a two-story, brick husk on Syracuse’s Near West Side. There, the sequel is planned.

Building a museum and brewery
Davies and her partner, Sonya Parrish, are buying a vacant, 1900s-era fortress at 412 Oswego St., which they foresee as the future Fagbug home and museum. Read more here.