I first read about Erin Davies and her FagBug on the YP4 blog and thought what she was doing was really cool. Erin's VW Beetle was vandalized with the words "fag" and "u r gay" last April because she has a rainbow sticker on the car. Rather than remove the graffiti and stay silent, Erin decided to leave the spay paint on her car and spend her summer driving across the country raising awareness about hate crimes. Check out her website www.fagbug.com. You can also befriend the FagBug on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fagbug.

When I saw that Erin would be driving from Albuquerque to Phoenix, I thought it would be great if she could stop in my town, Flagstaff, Arizona and speak about activism and fighting homophobia, so I sent her an email. She'll be here this Wednesday. I decided to create a blueprint and make Erin's visit my YP4 project. For the past month, I've been planning an event for the FagBug here in Flagstaff. (If anyone will be in Flagstaff on July 18th please stop by the Campus Coffee Bean from 5-7pm.)

Creating and implementing a blueprint has been at times frustrating, a little scary, and generally enlightening. Having never planned anything bigger than a birthday party before, I found myself relying rather heavily on advice and help from others. And people have been really helpful. I spent the weekend putting up fliers all over town. I expected people to be hesitant to put up fliers that had the word "fag" on them in their store windows. But nearly everyone I asked was kind and supportive once I explained what the FagBug is all about. I think sometimes I underestimate the general public. I also tend to underestimate myself, but putting together this event has taught me a lot about what I am capable of. Despite the frustrations and the fear of stepping out of my comfort zone, I've learned a lot about myself from creating a blueprint and it has been a great experience. I expected to learn a lot from my project for YP4, but I didn't realize how much I'd learn about myself.