When Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan received a call from the mayor’s office early Aug. 21, she knew something was wrong. She just didn’t expect that the state had removed Pulse’s rainbow crosswalk.
Located in District 4, which she’s represented since 2000, the crosswalk was installed on West Esther St. off South Orange Ave. in the aftermath of the tragedy. Over 3,000 people signed a petition asking the city to remember the 49 lives lost in 2016 by making it a permanent addition, calling it “a crossroad to the world.”
Local officials agreed, working directly with the Florida Department of Transportation to finish its installation in 2017. In the years since, the crosswalk has become a key fixture at Pulse, one that was expected to become a part of the city’s permanent memorial.
“We followed all of the FDOT regulations and rules when we installed this crosswalk,” Sheehan told Watermark Out News the morning it was removed. “My frustration with this process is we’ve done everything properly.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer echoed this, condemning the state’s “callous action of hastily removing part of a memorial to what was at the time our nation’s largest mass shooting, without any supporting safety data or discussion.”
He also called it “a cruel political act.”
“While the state works to erase the memory of the victims of the Pulse tragedy by painting over the crosswalk, our community’s commitment to honoring the 49, and completing the memorial, will never waver,” Dyer shared.
Its removal followed an FDOT memo issued June 30 on “non-standard surface markings … that do not directly contribute to traffic safety.” The department tasked Florida’s cities with identifying non-compliant installations and threatened to withhold funding for not removing them.
The directive mirrors a federal “safety initiative” from the Trump administration, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced by noting taxpayers “expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”
LGBTQ+ advocates quickly condemned the remarks, noting that street murals have been found to make roadways safer. A 2022 Bloomberg Philanthropies and Sam Schwartz study compared average crash rates in 17 cities before and after the installation of asphalt art. Municipalities included St. Petersburg — which among others was home to a Progressive Pride street mural, a community-funded initiative led by St Pete Pride in 2020.
Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, board president, noted last month that having “rainbow imagery on our streets it more than just decoration, it is a beacon of hope, a sense of belonging, and affirmation in public spaces where LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies gather and celebrate.”
Researchers found a 50% decrease in crashes involving pedestrians or other road users. Despite this and additional data, uncertainty and funding threats have led cities to comply.
Sarasota confirmed Aug. 1 that it would remove its LGBTQ+-focused PrideWalk, and Tampa confirmed Aug. 26 it would remove its LGBTQ+-focused mural. They were respectively commissioned by or installed in partnership with Project Pride and the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber, which have each denounced their removals.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the state feels they can override the will of local governments and citizens by eliminating these murals,” Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber CEO Rene Cantu says. “It clearly is an attack on historically marginalized communities like the LGBTQ+ community, under the guise of disproven claims of public safety.”
Believing the same in St. Petersburg, locals launched a petition to save the city’s street murals and gathered Aug. 14 at St. Petersburg City Hall for a Save Our Street Murals rally. It preceded a City Council meeting, where around 20 participants directly addressed the governing body.
Each shared stories and expressed support for St. Petersburg as an inclusive city of the arts. Local artist John Gascot spoke first; he was among those to paint the city’s Black Lives Matter mural outside of the Woodson African American Museum, now its Black History Matters mural. He likened FDOT’s actions to “erasure.”
Winter Pride Executive Director Rob Hall, also representing Pour Behavior’s LGBTQ+ businesses like Cocktail and the Mari Jean Hotel, also spoke.
“Friends, family and visitors are hesitant about coming to Florida because of the political climate — and when they ask us if it’s safe here, we tell them yes,” he said. “We are the safe space … but it’s not just our words that tell them that, it’s the art and our streets.
“It’s the mural that greets them before they ever speak to a single person,” he continued. “It’s that silent, powerful message that says, ‘This city is for you. You belong here.’”
The city subsequently asked FDOT for five exemptions to their policy on Aug. 20, the Progressive Pride street mural among them. Transportation and Parking Management Director Evan Mory outlined the request.
FDOT District 7 Secretary Justin Hall formally denied it Aug. 22. He noted “Florida Statutes requires removal of these pavement markings immediately.”
Hall added that St. Petersburg could request an administrative proceeding but that the murals in question would “not be allowed” to remain. Mory, in his response, confirmed that the city would comply with the state’s directive and that “in lieu of City personnel undertaking the work directly, the City is coordinating with FDOT to have the markings removed.”
St. Petersburg will reimburse FDOT for associated costs but has promised to keep the spirit of its murals alive in other ways.
“Make no mistake, this is not the end of the story,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch shared Aug. 25. “Our response will be strategic, not reactionary … It will serve us better in the long run to be strategic for our community.” Read more on p. 10.
Orlando officials expected an opportunity to follow a similar path for the crosswalk near Pulse, or perhaps mirror the process playing out in South Florida. FDOT also set a September deadline for Delray Beach and Key West to remove their LGBTQ+ asphalt art; officials attended hearings on the matter.
“They denied us that,” Sheehan said of the process. “They just [removed the crosswalk] in the middle of the night because they could.” The commissioner called FDOT’s actions “a direct attack.”
“This is an overreach of government power and government is not supposed to oppress its citizens; government is supposed to serve its citizens,” she said. “This was designed for a memorial, and it was designed for public safety. Period.”
Sheehan was among elected officials to visit the crosswalk the morning after it was repainted. She was joined by state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, also a candidate for Orlando mayor.
“The state of Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation, the DeSantis administration … for some reason, wanted to make an example out of this rainbow crosswalk,” Smith noted. “This rainbow crosswalk that was painted not only to honor the lives of 49 mostly LGBTQ people of color who were murdered here, but also to keep the visitors and the pedestrians safe who have come here year after year to pay their respects.”
DeSantis responded to Smith via social media. “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes,” he wrote.
Eskamani was among those to condemn such claims.
“It was never a political statement, and caring about people of all backgrounds is not meant to be a political statement,” she said. “But what is political, what is authoritative, and what is disrespectful to the 49 lives murdered and our entire community, is sneaking into the city in the middle of the night to literally erase a rainbow crosswalk that was originally established with FDOT approval!”
Eskamani also called the department’s actions “straight-up fascism.” She noted “we’re not going to let the governor weaponize state agencies and erase communities without a fight.”
Orlando advocates made that clear Aug. 21. Equality Florida, which had already called on municipalities to “stand firm and insist on legal review,” organized an impromptu Rally for Visibility that evening.
“Just as we did in the hours after the shooting at Pulse, we refuse to be erased,” the organization shared ahead of time.
In a statement Aug. 21, FDOT told Watermark Out News that the department is tasked with ensuring “the safety and consistency of public roadways and transportation systems.” They said those efforts include “ensuring our roadways are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests.”
Noting that FDOT had completed a review “of all state-maintained roadways,” the department advised they had begun “correcting pavement markings not in compliance,” including the crosswalk near Pulse, “street art previously installed on state right away.”
“Transportation infrastructure is for the movement of people and goods,” they added, noting “the crosswalk has been restored to its proper form.”
LGBTQ+ advocates in Orlando disagree. During the Aug. 21 rally, many used chalk to return rainbow colors to the crosswalk, a temporary measure that drew widespread support, before another group returned Aug. 22 to reapply the colors in paint.
“Immediately after reading the news about [the crosswalk] I flagged it in a group chat of organizer friends,” GLSEN Central Florida Chair Jen Cousins recalls. “We decided pretty fast that something needed to be done, like recoloring the crosswalk, but we wanted to do it in broad daylight, not hide like the state did. We assembled a team for this specific action.”
Cousins says the advocates “who joined our initial call to right this wrong felt very strongly that it was an abomination to target the Pulse crosswalk like this.” She says the matter “felt personal for all of us and we were sick of being bullied by this fascist administration who is hell bent on erasing queer and trans lives.”
“This act of civil disobedience was done out of love and grief,” Alice Rhiannon, one of the painters, also notes. “… the crosswalk was callously painted over in the darkness of night by a cowardly state intent on erasing our LGBTQIA+, immigrant and BIPOC communities. I am tired. We all are.”
“I didn’t do this for fun, or for history; I did this for defense,” adds Jude Speegle. “Defense against fascism. They made this theater, we only followed suit. I simply put paint on the ground in response to my rage.”
“I believe our community will support people like me,” Matthew Grocholske also notes. “I stood up for the 49 angels, and I still would do anything for them.”
FDOT subsequently repainted the crosswalk and members of law enforcement also began patrolling the site. The situation continues to evolve.
“This is just another fascist move by DeSantis to not only beat down the LGBTQ+ community, but to try and stop the entire community of Orlando from taking action against an injustice to our city,” Cousins says. She asserts that local advocates won’t be deterred.
“I want LGBTQ+ Floridians to know that we will not stand for being erased,” she says. “DeSantis and his cronies can try all they want to remove queer and trans people from schools, bathrooms, medical care, books and government IDs, but they will not win. We’re sick of being bullied and beaten down. We are not going anywhere.”
Orlando businesses have also responded. They’ve promised to showcase the city’s inclusivity in more ways than ever before, efforts that extend to Tampa Bay. One initiative is painting free murals throughout Pinellas County.
Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith, who says DeSantis “is extorting Florida cities” in “a cowardly abuse of power,” expects actions like these to continue.
“DeSantis may paint over rainbows and art, but people are answering with defiance — chalking sidewalks, raising flags, covering cars with stickers, and businesses painting their parking lots with rainbows,” she shared. “For every rainbow DeSantis covers, our community will raise more — bigger, bolder, louder.”
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