The War on Rainbow Crosswalks Comes to Texas

A Republican state lawmaker called Texas “the biggest funder of transgenderism in America”...wishful thinking.

Wikimedia Commons // Gordon Werner

Rainbow crosswalks in Texas are under attack from state Republicans.

A post by the far-right provocateur “Libs of TikTok” account showing Houston’s rainbow crosswalks has triggered an effort by Texas lawmakers to rid the state of the homages to the LGBTQ community, as well as other “non-normative” street markings.

According to an Oct. 8 letter from Texas Department of Transportation, the stated purpose for the rainbow crosswalk purge is that the colorful display supposedly jeopardizes driver safety. But the words of Governor Greg Abbott paint a different picture.

“Today, I directed the Texas Department of Transportation to ensure Texas counties and cities remove any and all political ideologies from our streets,” he said on the same day the letter was sent out. The Governor’s office denounced “symbols, flags, or other markings conveying social, political, or ideological messages.”

The directive came days after “Libs of TikTok”—run by Chaya Raichik, a longtime antagonist of queer and trans people—posted a Houston Chronicle clip about rainbow crosswalks being restored in a historically queer neighborhood. Installed in 2017 to honor Alex Hill, a victim of a fatal hit-and-run, the crosswalks were removed this summer for road work, the Chronicle reported. Residents feared that Texas’s mounting attacks on LGBTQ rights might lead to permanent erasure.

At first, Houston officials struck a hopeful chord. “The crosswalk will be restored to how it was previously as the City of Houston continues to review recent federal guidance,” a city spokesperson said. Shortly after, however, “Libs of TikTok” took to Twitter to condemn the crosswalk and called for it to be “removed immediately.” Texas officials are seemingly accommodating her request.

Texas Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican and ex-Trump official, then jumped into the pile-on. “Reminder that the ‘Republican’ Texas government may be the biggest funder of transgenderism in America,” he tweeted. Notably, the crosswalks in question only featured the gay pride rainbow, not trans pride colors.

Harrison also recently made headlines for tweeting about a Texas professor whose curriculum included a children’s book about a non-binary middle schooler. The harassment campaign resulted in her firing, and two other administrators, including the university president, also stepped down in the fallout.

Other Texas cities, like Austin, are gearing up for a similar fight over rainbow crosswalks. This comes after clashes erupted in Florida over its own rainbow crosswalk memorial outside of Pulse nightclub, the site of a 2016 mass shooting against LGBTQ bar patrons.

Like Florida, Texas’s campaign against rainbow crosswalks claims to be politically neutral. It cites 2013 guidelines from the Federal Highway Administration that emphasize the importance of uniformity in roadway signage. But since then, multiple studies have shown these crosswalks are associated with equal or lower crash rates than standard crosswalks.

Nonetheless, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis outlawed the street installations this past summer. The Florida Department of transportation issued a statement against all crosswalk art—from the rainbow squares in Orlando, to pro-police blue lines in Tampa.

As Erin in the Morning previously reported, wayward Floridians who allegedly recolored the crosswalks outside of Pulse were arrested by police. We might see more of these clashes as the federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy continues to flex his muscles in pressuring state and local governments to remove rainbow crosswalks from communities across the country.