Gabrielle Russon
LGBTQ+ advocates are slamming state officials for paving over a rainbow crosswalk at the Pulse memorial. Others are vowing to support Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and urging him to fight the state.
But speaking out for the first time about the decision, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he refuses to let state roads be “commandeered for political purposes.”
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) removed the rainbows Wednesday night without informing city officials. The rainbows on Orange Avenue were added in 2017 to honor the 49 people killed at the Pulse nightclub in 2016. At the time, it was the country’s deadliest mass shooting.
An Orlando Sentinel editorial noted that FDOT had actually approved and constructed the rainbow crosswalk last year during Orange Avenue’s renovation.
Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman decried the state removing the rainbows.
“The rainbow crosswalk at Pulse was a tribute, not a political statement — and a tribute authorized by a Republican administration, at that,” Berman said in a statement. “It was specifically designed to enhance pedestrian safety for people paying their respects. Removing that crosswalk was a mean-spirited attempt to demoralize the LGBTQ+ community and an insult to the 49 people who lost their lives there nearly a decade ago
“This cowardly abuse of power, carried out under the cover of night, is a dangerous escalation of DeSantis’s campaign to erase LGBTQ visibility and censor our history,” said Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida.
“We have endured decades of state-sanctioned discrimination. And, like every attack before it, this act is designed to spread fear, dispirit us, and push us back into the shadows. But just as we did in the hours after Pulse, our community will come together, look out for each other, and raise our flags higher. We refuse to be erased. We will not let hate win.”
Other elected officials facing similar battles with the state are standing with Orlando.
FDOT ordered Miami Beach to remove all its rainbow crosswalks placed in honor of the LGBTQ+ community. Commissioner Alex Fernandez, Miami Beach’s only openly gay elected local official, said he stands in solidarity with Dyer.
“The Soviet Union once stripped color from its people, state-controlled factories forcing out grey and brown clothing — a symbol of uniformity and control,” Fernandez said on X.
“Tragically, that same history is repeating itself in America, right here in Florida, where our state is covering rainbow sidewalks with black paint in the name of control. I stand with Mayor Dyer in raising my voice and I will work to bring cities together so we can fight back against this overreach.”
Fernandez urged Dyer to fight back.
“We must resist. What feels small today is already growing into something dangerous and we must stand firm before it’s too late,” Fernandez wrote.
A similar fight is brewing in Delray Beach, which is Berman’s district.
“The actions taken by the DeSantis administration fly in the face of home rule,” Berman said. “In my own district, the City of Delray Beach is fighting back against government overreach, and I fully support their efforts to make their own choices about what happens in their city limits. Surely there’s something better our state agencies could be doing with their time.”
