Erin Davies wears no cape. She has rescued no children from burning buildings. But some would argue to whether or not she has superpowers. The 29 year old from Albany, New York has become a hero to many people of the LGBT community and yesterday, The University’s Lambda Alliance invited her to campus to celebrate her courage and share her story.

On April 17, 2007 Erin parked her Volkswagen Bug on a different street near her house in Albany. The next morning, which happened to be the 11th Annual National Day of Silence, she walked to her car to find that overnight, she had become a victim to a hate crime.

“At first I just saw redness all over my car, I didn’t know what it was,” Davies said. But as she walked closer, she saw that someone had spray painted “fAg” on her driver’s side window and “u r gay” on the hood of her car. Like anyone who has ever had their car vandalized or burglarized, Davies filed a police report.

“The police kept asking me, ‘Who are your enemies?’ and I thought it could’ve been someone I knew, but then I realized it probably happened because of the rainbow sticker on the back of my car,” she said.

She also intended to get the car fixed as soon as possible, but her car insurance company said that she would have to wait five days. It was those five days that were crucial for Erin’s endeavor.

“It gave me time to really think about it and what it meant,” she said. “I kind of wasn’t that offended. It was like someone writing ‘U R Straight’ on a gay person’s car.”

She left the car parked in her neighborhood and noticed that she wasn’t the only one that felt this way.

“Everyone started coming up and wanted to talk to me about it, there were so many different opinions.”

“There will never be a solution to a problem if the problem isn’t recognized,” she said. “And just because you don’t see [hate crimes], doesn’t mean that [they aren't] happening.”

Erin decided that she needed to let everyone see that it was happening. She decided to kick off a road trip to get the vandalized vehicle as much exposure as possible. “Originally it was only going to be a week-long trip,” she said. One week turned into 58 days and 58 days turned into one year.

She has since gained sponsorhip from VW America, written six chapters of a soon-to-be published book and will soon wrap up a documentary of her journey.

Because of Davies’ widespread message and major success, The Lambda alliance said they felt humbled by her visit.

“There are so many instances of hate and bias that fall between the cracks,” said Shawna Scott, executive director of the Lambda Alliance. “It’s just really important and pertinent that we bring people like [Erin] to campus [to combat that].”