Fort Lauderdale is latest to contest rainbow crosswalk removal order as Florida cities face deadline

By Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) — As cities across Florida face a state-imposed deadline next week to remove rainbow-colored crosswalks and other street art, at least three say they will appeal, arguing in part that the directive robs their neighborhoods of artistic expressions representing their cities’ dedication to diversity and inclusivity of LGBTQ+ communities.

Others, meanwhile, have yielded or indicated they will agree to the state’s demands for removals of street art – not just LGTBQ-themed designs, but art nearly across the board – citing the state’s threat to cut transportation funding if they don’t.

Fort Lauderdale, whose leaders want to keep its rainbow-colored road art, on Wednesday night became the latest to indicate it will challenge the state’s order, with the city commission voting unanimously in a special meeting to pursue an administrative appeal to the Florida Department of Transportation.

The city joins at least two other communities looking to keep rainbow crosswalks – Key West and Delray Beach – in requesting a FDOT hearing ahead of the removal deadlines of September 3 or 4, depending on the city.

“Tonight, we must stand our ground. We cannot allow us to be bullied into submission and to allow others to dictate what we should do in our own communities,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said at Wednesday’s city commission meeting.

The crosswalk battle comes after FDOT issued a June 30 memo saying its policy prohibits “pavement or surface art” – or any markings not directly supporting traffic control or public safety – on crosswalks and travel lanes, including “pavement surface art that is associated with social, political, or ideological messages or images.”

FDOT then sent letters to city leaders across the state this month, identifying road markings it said needed removal, and threatening “withholding of state funds” if the cities didn’t comply by deadlines of early September.

The policy gained national attention last week when the state removed, overnight, a rainbow crosswalk from a state road in Orlando outside Pulse, the gay nightclub where 49 people were killed in 2016. That removal was decried by Orlando’s mayor as a “cruel political act.”

The state says the initiative to remove “pavement art” is about safety, clarity and compliance with a new law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June.

“We have a new law and we have a new standard, and we’re simply implementing that standard, and it’s across the board,” FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said this week at a news conference. “Pavement art is not allowed, and we’re removing everything that’s not compliant.”

But DeSantis himself indicated the move in part targets removal of what he calls political expression. Responding to a state senator’s criticism of the removal of Orlando’s rainbow crosswalk, he posted to X: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”

Advocacy group Equality Florida said it has identified 12 Florida cities that were asked to removed rainbow crosswalks, often associated with LGBTQ rights and pride.

“Ron DeSantis is extorting Florida cities by threatening to withhold millions in taxpayer-funded relief unless they bow to his demands,” Equality Florida’s executive director, Nadine Smith, said in a statement to CNN. “This isn’t about safety. It’s a cowardly abuse of power and the latest in his campaign to ban books, whitewash history, and attack LGBTQ people.”

‘When they see this rainbow, they know they are home’

For Fort Lauderdale, FDOT demanded the city remedy four areas of colored pavement by September 4 – one in the design of a Progress Pride flag, and three that aren’t rainbow themed.

On Monday, about 50 people gathered along Fort Lauderdale’s Sebastian Street, location of the Pride road art, to protest the demand, CNN affiliate WPLG reported.

The Pride-themed road art represents “a gateway for all of the tourists who visit our community who want to find the LGBTQ+ community,” protester Patrik Gallineaux told WPLG. “When they see this rainbow, they know they are home.”

In a crowded city hall in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday evening, the five members of the city commission, including the mayor and vice mayor, met to discuss the FDOT letter.

Public comment overwhelmingly opposed capitulation to the state’s mandate.

“I’m a taxpayer, and I want my money to be used on the right things, not to infringe on people’s rights,” one man said.

“I look forward to how this crisis gives us an opportunity to say once again, we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” another said.

“It’s un-American and unpatriotic,” a woman said.

The commission voted unanimously to pursue an administrative appeal to FDOT. In a second vote, all but one person voted to appoint law firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman to represent the city should it become necessary.

“I’m sure that the state will find every way they can to associate their actions and to make it look like they’re trying to enforce traffic control mechanisms,” the mayor said. “But as it’s been said time and again, it’s simply a camouflage for their true intent, which is to erase and eliminate all or as many LGBTQ references in the state as possible.”

The law firm is representing Fort Lauderdale, Key West and Delray Beach, the firm told CNN without additional comment.

Key West has an informal hearing with FDOT in Orlando on September 3, the same day as Key West’s deadline to remove its rainbow crosswalk, according to Mayor Danise DeeDee Henriquez.

Delray Beach, whose leaders also voted to request a hearing with FDOT, faces a September 3 deadline to comply with the state’s demands. FDOT’s letter to the city said it could have a hearing September 2.

The letters to all three cities say that if they do not comply, FDOT itself will remove the markings, and the cities will be subject to the withholding of funds.

A fourth city, Miami Beach, may also appeal. The city was given a September 4 deadline to remove its rainbow crosswalk, The Associated Press reported. Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez intends to suggest appealing the order during a meeting one day before the deadline, the AP reported.

‘Safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks’

In June, DeSantis signed a law authorizing the withholding of state transportation funds to cities not in compliance with FDOT’s policies. FDOT then issued its June 30 memo, which said nonstandard street markings “can lead to distraction or misunderstandings, jeopardizing both driver and pedestrian safety.”

A day after the state memo was issued, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to governors of all 50 states saying intersections and crosswalks should be “kept free from distractions” and giving states a late-August deadline to submit a list of major issues it will fix. The letter didn’t elaborate, but Duffy appeared to do so in a related X post.

“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy said about the letter July 1 on X. “Political banners have no place on public roads.”

As far back as 2011, the Federal Highway Administration discouraged communities from painting colorful or differently designed crosswalks, citing a threat to safety. But they emerged nevertheless, and West Hollywood, California, claims to be the first city to have installed a permanent rainbow crosswalk, in 2012.

Since Duffy’s July 1 memo, no major moves against rainbow-colored crosswalks or street artwork outside Florida have been apparent.

“Some of these crosswalks and markings have been in place for years and years, so claiming this is about public safety just doesn’t hold up,” a spokesperson for LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD told CNN about Florida’s moves. “Florida officials’ complaining about ‘political statements’ proves this is another effort to stomp on people’s rights to free speech and expression, and it spreads the lie that support for LGBTQ people is something other than basic respect and kindness.”

DeSantis this week said Florida’s policy came after “certainly in other parts of the country, (pavement art) got way out of control to where really the safety and the use of the roads was almost secondary to people being able to appropriate that for different types of messaging.”

“We don’t want to be in a situation where we’re playing whack-a-mole and (saying), ‘Well, that mural is fine, but that’s not – we think the pedestrians may get confused there.’ … Because then, you get into, like, ‘Oh, is this a content thing’ and all that. No. We’re just not doing it. We’re out of that business in Florida,” DeSantis said.

Much already erased

Across the state, many different styles of pavement art are affected – not just rainbows, but also designs nodding to racial equality, police, and a university.

Even Daytona International Speedway hasn’t been spared, with its checkered flag crosswalk being painted over, according to WPLG.

In St. Petersburg, city leaders last week requested that five street art projects be spared, a rainbow-colored intersection, a Black Lives Matter mural and a University of South Florida-themed crosswalk, the AP reported. The request was denied, according to the AP.

In West Palm Beach, city crews used a pressure washer to remove rainbow colors from a crosswalk this week, according to the mayor’s office. The city said it had previously purchased rainbow-colored bricks to update the crosswalk, but the city now plans to use the bricks to create an LGBTQ+ monument in a neighborhood park.

Crews in Tampa are removing street art this week, city spokesman Joshua Cascio said. A “Back the Blue” mural on the street outside police headquarters is included in art to be removed, according to a list of pavement art locations provided to CNN by the city.

Also on the chopping block are painted bike lanes outside an Orlando elementary school, according to city commissioner Jim Gray’s office. The bike lanes were designed by two fourth-graders who won an FDOT art contest to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety, according to the school.

Four areas of street or sidewalk art will be removed in Sarasota, city spokesperson Jan Thornburg told CNN. “The city of Sarasota is not in a position to jeopardize state funding,” she said.

In Gainesville, three rainbow crosswalks were being removed this week from downtown, and the colored bricks that comprised one of them would be preserved for “future projects,” the city said in an email.

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