Florida puts rainbow crosswalks in the crosshairs, as cities face deadlines to remove them

Multiple Florida cities are now facing deadlines in the coming days after being ordered to paint over or remove so-called rainbow crosswalks, brightly colored street crossings meant to celebrate gay rights and LGBTQ pride.

In letters from the state transportation department, communities are being ordered to remove them by early next month.

“I am outraged by the State of Florida’s decision to forcefully remove Pride crosswalks — symbols of love, support, and unity in our communities,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Thursday.

“These vibrant installations are more than paint on pavement. They reflect the values we hold dear in Miami-Dade: respect, appreciation of fellow neighbors, and the fundamental right to live and love openly,” she said in a statement.

The warnings to communities across Florida come after this week’s removal of a rainbow-colored crossing marking the 2016 massacre outside the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were gunned down. It was painted over in the middle of the night by work crews.

The issue has been simmering since a July 1 directive from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who gave U.S. governors 60 days to identify what he called safety improvements.

“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy said in a statement at the time.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday amplified those comments, saying on X: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”

A statement from the Florida Department of Transportation said the agency has a duty “to ensure the safety and consistency of public roadways and transportation systems.”

“That means ensuring our roadways are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests,” it said.

Efforts to remove the crosswalks are “clearly an anti-LGBTQ push on behalf of both the federal government and the copycat version from the state government,” said Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.

“They’re basically blackmailing municipalities, counties and states by saying if you don’t do this, we’re going to withhold funding,” Hoch said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

It is unclear whether other states and communities outside Florida are being ordered to remove rainbow crossings, but Florida is often the vanguard nationwide in fights over what some call the culture wars of politics. Those include battles over the removal of library books deemed inappropriate by DeSantis and other Republicans.

Officials in at least one major city outside the state — Lexington, Kentucky — responded to the federal guidance this week by saying they have no plans to remove their rainbow crosswalks.

“There are no plans to cover them. When we put them in, we were careful to use a design that did not cause traffic concerns,” said Craig Cammack, a city spokesman. “We feel it meets the federal requirements regarding crosswalks.”

In Key West, Florida, state transportation officials said that if pavement markings in its historic downtown aren’t removed by Sept. 3, “the Florida Department of Transportation will remove them by any appropriate method necessary without further notice.” In a letter to Key West’s city manager, federal authorities also threatened the “immediate withholding” of state funds for what it called “additional violations.”

The Aug. 15 letter to Key West leaders said that many local communities in Florida “immediately began undertaking actions to ensure compliance.” It did not specify how many communities have cooperated or what steps they have taken.

In St. Petersburg, city leaders this week requested that five street art projects be spared from removal, saying they fostered a sense of community. They include a rainbow-colored intersection, a Black Lives Matter mural and a University of South Florida-themed crosswalk.

Miami Beach has been ordered to remove its rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive by the first week of September. “We need to resist this action,” Commissioner Alex Fernandez told WSVN-TV. “We need to protect the individuality of our community, the freedom and the safety that our rainbow crosswalk expresses to the world.”