Orlando residents and Florida public officials are decrying the state’s removal of a rainbow crosswalk memorial honoring the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.
Late Wednesday evening, August 20, state officials reportedly paved over a multicolored street crossing on Orange Avenue that stood for nearly a decade as a tribute to the 49 people killed in the Orlando mass shooting, who were primarily LGBTQ+ and Latine. The crosswalk is located just steps away from the site of the massacre, which occurred when a gunman opened fire at the local gay nightclub Pulse. In late 2023, the City of Orlando purchased the property to erect a permanent memorial to the victims.
The pave-over follows the passage of new legislation in June that prohibits pavement surface signage and art that “is associated with social, political, or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control.” Issued by the administrations of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump, the law has jeopardized dozens of colorful LGBTQ+ street signage across the state.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer called the removal of the pedestrian crossing a “cruel political act” in a statement on X.
Since taking office in 2019, DeSantis has launched numerous attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, such as passing the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law and a slew of other anti-LGBTQ+ bills, targeting books with LGBTQ+ characters in public school libraries, and barring minors from gender-affirming healthcare. He has also repeatedly excluded references to LGBTQ+ and Latine people in annual remembrances of the Pulse shooting.
State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, who was the first openly gay Latino official elected to the Florida legislature in 2016, called the erasure of the crossing a “disgusting betrayal” in an X post. Hours after the removal, Smith and other residents used chalk to recolor the street memorial.
“Of course they did this in the middle of the night,” Smith said. “Because they knew what they were doing was wrong.”
