Orlando Citizens Defy DeSantis, Re-Color Pulse Memorial Sidewalk In Rainbow Colors

Trump and DeSantis admins ordered rainbow crosswalks removed, and the Pulse Memorial crosswalk was among the first painted over. Now, citizens are fighting back.

Orange County Democrats

In July, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a letter to governors in all 50 states calling for the removal of Pride crosswalks. Within days, the Florida Department of Transportation followed suit, sending out a memo declaring that any crosswalks bearing “social, political, or ideological messages or images” would be stripped away. One of the first to go was the rainbow crosswalk at the site of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre, where dozens of LGBTQ+ people were killed. On Tuesday night, DeSantis administration officials quietly painted over the memorial under cover of darkness. But the story did not end there: the very next day, Orlando residents rallied at the site and restored the rainbow colors, defiantly insisting that their community would not be erased.

According to community members who spoke with Erin In The Morning, Orlando’s LGBTQ+ residents and their allies wasted no time in responding. They quickly organized, gathered at the site, and restored the rainbow colors with meticulously colored chalk. One witness described how, as people worked to bring the crosswalk back to life, a rainbow appeared in the sky, further electrifying the crowd.

Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub shooting and National Press Secretary at HRC, described the moment this way: “After the state blacked out the Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk, community members colored it in with chalk. Shortly after, rain came and washed it away. As the sky cleared the rains left a double rainbow in the sky. Then during the Equality Florida rally where crowds gathered to resist the DeSantis censorship agenda, volunteers chalked it again and the rainbow shined through.”

Early in July, Secretary Sean Duffy released a memo to all 50 states calling for the removal of Pride crosswalks. He further added threats to highway funding in locations that have them, stating, “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks. Political banners have no place on public roads. I’m reminding recipients of US DOT roadway funding that it’s limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else. It’s that simple.” Following the memo, the Florida Department of Transportation followed suit, calling for an end to “social, political, or ideological messages or images” in crosswalks.

Then, Tuesday night, it became clear that the state had the road repainted, coloring over the rainbow colors with black paint:

“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 in response to the removal of the rainbow colors. “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.”

Following the Orlando rally that restored the Pulse memorial crosswalk, reports of similar resistance began surfacing across Florida. In Delray Beach, community members are fighting to preserve their Pride intersection. In Gainesville, residents are rallying to defend their crosswalk and even proposing new rainbow installations on sidewalks that may be less vulnerable to state interference. Miami Beach has also pushed back, with one commissioner declaring, “We need to resist this action. We need to protect the individuality of our community, the freedom and the safety that our rainbow crosswalk expresses to the world.”

The removal of Pride crosswalks—especially one memorializing the victims of an anti-LGBTQ+ mass shooting—underscores how Republicans are increasingly embracing far-right politics, even when it means siding with those who wish harm on marginalized communities. In Florida, Republican leaders have repeatedly defended Confederate statues under the guise of “history.” Yet when it comes to a memorial honoring LGBTQ+ lives lost in a horrific shooting, that same logic disappears, dismissed instead as “politics.” The hypocrisy could not be starker.

Republicans in Florida have relentlessly tried to erase the LGBTQ+ community, but every attempt has only fueled resistance. Earlier this year, when the state banned Pride lighting on bridges during Pride month, citizens brought their own flashlights and bathed the bridge in rainbow colors anyway. This week, when the Pulse memorial crosswalk was painted over in the dead of night, the community restored it by dawn. Again and again, Floridians are sending the same message: no matter how hard the state tries to erase them, LGBTQ+ people are here to stay.