In 2007, Erin Davies’ VW Beetle was vandalized with a grafitti slur while she was at a Pride event. Rather than be ashamed of what happened, the art-teacher-turned-activist drove around with the word fag on her car for a year before getting it completely remodeled as the “Fagbug”—rainbow-colored and covered in pride. She then hit the road with her loud, out, and proud message to raise awareness of LGBT rights and speak up where so many have been silenced. Fagbug Nation takes you behind the wheel of what it’s like to drive the now-famous Fagbug. With six years of touring under her belt, director and activist Davies has her mind set on getting her car to all 50 states, Hawaii and Alaska being the final two. To pull this off, she went 54 days without a car as it traveled on five boats, and she flew on 14 planes. The Fagbug gets lei’d in Hawaii and drives into the midnight sun in Alaska, but first makes a pit stop at the Equality House in Topeka, Kansas. While on the road and at speaking events, Davies meets a diverse cast of characters and recounts what she’s experienced over the past half-decade: praise (from those who have been helped to find their own voices), condemnation (from bigots and from those within the LGBT community who don’t agree with her methods), confusion, and applause. Watch as this rainbow-striped Beetle serves as a catalyst for our national journey on the road to equality. Garden Thieves Pictures (fagbug.com). —Suzie Lynde
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