A rainbow crosswalk honoring the 49 victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre was painted over overnight on Wednesday, following a new directive from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The crosswalk, located on Orange Avenue in Orlando beside the shuttered nightclub that still serves as a memorial, had stood as a symbol of remembrance for years.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer condemned the removal in a statement on X, calling it a “cruel political act.”
“We are devastated to learn that overnight the state painted over the Pulse Memorial crosswalk on Orange Avenue,” Dyer said. “This callous action of hastily removing part of a memorial to what was at the time our nation’s largest mass shooting, without any supporting safety data or discussion, is a cruel political act.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended the decision, noting on X that the Florida Department of Transportation had acted properly: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”
The order, however, originated from Washington. On July 1, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sent a letter to all governors and Puerto Rico as part of his “SAFE ROADS Initiative,” urging compliance with new rules meant to eliminate “distractions” on non-freeway roads.
Though the letter didn’t specifically cite rainbow crosswalks, Duffy made the target clear when reposting it on X.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” he wrote. “Political banners have no place on public roads. I’m reminding recipients of @USDOT roadway funding that it’s limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else. It’s that simple.”
Local Democratic leaders rejected that explanation.
“That’s a totally ridiculous and absurd excuse for what is very clearly an attempt to erase LGBTQ identities and just be anti-queer,” state Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith said.
Dyer stressed that the memorial crosswalk was installed “in close coordination with the state and adhere[d] to national safety standards.”
“In fact, the crosswalk that is part of the Pulse Memorial was installed by the state,” he said, noting it was completed in October 2017. “This crosswalk not only enhanced safety and visibility for the large number of pedestrians visiting the memorial, it also served as a visual reminder of Orlando’s commitment to honor the 49 lives taken on June 12, 2016.”
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While the state removed the painted tribute, local volunteers quickly responded, filling in the newly black-and-white crosswalk with chalk to recreate its rainbow design.
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the Pulse massacre, which occurred in the early morning of June 12, 2016. A gunman armed with two semi-automatic weapons killed 49 people, wounded 58 others, and left many more trapped inside the nightclub during hours of terror.
At the time, the Pulse attack was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas massacre. It remains the worst act of violence against LGBTQ+ people in American history.
