Initially I wanted to get it cleaned right away, but my insurance company made me wait five days until they could get someone to come and give me a quote. I insisted on getting a rental car and told them "the word fag's right next to my face you've got to be kidding me there's no way I'm driving this thing." drove the rental car for days and by default my car was parked in my neighborhood while I waited for my insurance company to come.  

People came up to me in the middle of traffic and stopped me while I was driving the rental car to discuss what happened to my car. When I called the police everyone who passed by my car had an outward reaction to it. It brought strangers on the street together to talk about it.

One morning I went for a run and was stopped a block into it by the parking lot attendant who wanted to tell me why he thought I should take the rainbow sticker off my car and what it symbolizes. After not being able to go on the run that day, I had a gut feeling to drive it so I drove to school that day and got a spot in front of the admissions building.

Within one hour there were fifty phone calls of complaints about my car some people were upset to see it others wanted it removed immediately, and I was asked to move my car from campus. I was on a public street so I didn't. I was even dismissed from working that weekend because they didn't want my car there. I got on the news the first day and told them I was going to drive it for one week to raise awareness.  

Typically this type of thing is covered up immediately, and by covering it up it remains an isolated incident and whoever it happened to becomes shamed by it. By leaving it on, the person who did it is the one who should be ashamed, not me. I told a friend of mine from Baltimore about the reaction I got at school and he said, "fagbug.com I'm buying you the website." And did. He encouraged me to drive around the country and keep it on longer. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was the right thing to do.

Homophobia isn't just my problem, it's everyones. Until people in the general public have a direct experience with it, it will remain a growing problem in our society. If I moved my car the first day of driving it, it would've remained only my problem, by leaving it there, it was everyone's and still is. 

QL: How is the documentary coming along? Are you finding time to add more footage?

 ED: The documentary is close to being finished. Right now the first 23 minutes of it are completed, which is everything leading up to the day I left for the fagbug trip and a rough outline of the rest of it is put together. I've filmed everything except the one year anniversary of me driving my car when I will transform my car into my fagbug sticker.

My school is holding an "unveiling" event which will be filmed. The film will close with me making it through a year of driving the car with the graffiti, and will end with my final decision to transform the car into a moving symbol of gay pride. In April I have over 15 talks scheduled, and once I return I will devote May and June to finalizing the documentary. There's a lot to making a film final, permissions for music, finalizing sound, transitions, etc. There's still a lot to do but it's close. I expect to finish it by the end of June. 

QL: Your mission, according to your site, is to “ raise awareness about hate crimes and homophobia in our society” – how much more of it have you experienced by keeping the “fag” and “u r gay intact? 

ED: Since I've decided to keep the graffiti on my car for one year, I've experienced having a rock thrown in my back window, the word "fag" has been removed twice by a razor blade, once someone attempted to remove it with soap, another time with chemicals, and a cop in  Indiana yelled at me and told me I had to remove it and used his finger nails and began to scrape it off after I asked him not to." 

Along my travels, I've heard of three men who were killed for being perceived as being gay, along with several other people who've been vandalized or physically attacked. The interesting thing about fagbug is that it gives a visual representation to homophobia people endure everyday. If someone calls you a "fag" there's no way for you to show someone else how hurtful it is. By having it on my car with red spray paint next to my face as I drive, there's no way someone can avoid seeing how hurtful it was meant to be. 

QL: I read that you have been confronted by either teens yelling“fag” or someone approaching and insisting that you remove the slurs – how do you respond to them? And afterwards, have you found that  you've changed their attitude in any way? 

ED: In Indiana, two young kids drove by and yelled "fag" out the window. I had a chance to interview them after and asked them if they'd ever seen anything like this before and one confessed to writing fag on someone else's car with chalk. Their impression of gay people was men dressing up in women's clothing. They'd never met a gay person before. I took the time to talk to them to show them that gay people can be just like them. 

In South Carolina, I met a man who was incredibly homophobic and against people being openly gay in public. After I interviewed him, I sat down and talked to him and answered all the questions he had about being lesbian, and afterward he began to change his perspective. He also had never spoken to anyone who was gay.

 In Wisconsin, a boy from Texas drove past my car and shook my head at me. He told me I was ridiculous for driving around with the word fag on my car. He was also very homophobic and had an uncle that was gay that he's been trying to convince not to be for years.

Most people who are homophobic use religion as their reason. I saw this boy had basketball gear on and talked to him about something we had in common. I played in college on scholarship. Once we found a common ground, the tone of the conversation changed and he wished me luck on the rest of my trip. 

QL: Once you have completed your journey, and documentary, what then? Will you continue to promote, in some fashion, awareness  about  hate crimes/homophobia? 

ED:Once I complete the film, I will spend the next year continuing to do what I'm doing. By having my car wrapped like my fagbug sticker it will continue to promote the message of fagbug everywhere I drive it and will also continue to raise awareness and bring visibility for gay people.

I'll be spending the next year applying to and attending film festivals in the hopes that my film gets picked up for distribution so the message of fagbug can get out to a broader audience. T

he goal of it has always been to have a dialogue with the general public about homophobia. The more I can spread the message, the more that can happen. Once my car gets wrapped, and the film are done, I will continue doing talks at colleges full-time to spread the fagbug story.

I also have a book agent and am in the process of writing a book as well that will be another way to continue telling the story. 

QL: Do you think we’ll see an exclusive VW Fagbug created any time soon? 

ED: Yes, Volkswagen has been very supportive and for that I'm so grateful. I was so excited to get an email from them two weeks before my cross country trip was over that they wanted to sponsor me, and to have them sponsor the film and the expense for my car to get wrapped is even better. I've already pitched the idea for them to come out with a car that duplicates how my car will look once it's transformed into my fagbug sticker.

Who knows what will happen in the future for fagbug. Anything is possible!