TL;DR
- Florida DOT keeps repainting Pulse rainbow crosswalk black.
- Protesters re-color it daily with chalk.
- Gov. DeSantis calls rainbow “political.”
- LGBTQ community sees it as erasure of Pulse victims.
- More rainbow protests planned across Florida.
Florida’s War on the Pulse Memorial
The state of Florida is doubling down on its crusade against a rainbow-painted crosswalk at the site of the Pulse nightclub massacre, repeatedly erasing a community memorial to the 49 lives lost.
On Sunday night, the Florida Department of Transportation once again sent out crews to paint over the colorful crosswalk in Orlando with stark black-and-white stripes. Their excuse? “Uniformity of traffic control devices.” Their real message? That queer remembrance and visibility don’t belong on state roads.
The rainbow crosswalk was installed in 2017 as a permanent symbol of love and resilience at the Pulse Memorial. But this month, state officials decided it had to go—armed with a new regulation that bans “non-uniform pavement markings.” Gov. Ron DeSantis chimed in with a post on X declaring: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.” Translation: a rainbow honoring murdered LGBTQ Floridians is, apparently, too political for the Sunshine State.
Protesters Answer with Chalk
But the LGBTQ community isn’t taking the erasure quietly. Hundreds showed up last week, draped in rainbow flags, and chalked the crosswalk back into color—again and again, even as summer rains washed it away. Each day, they return, defiantly filling in the stripes while state troopers hover nearby.
Troopers told demonstrators that chalk is allowed as long as it doesn’t block traffic, but paint would lead to arrests. By Sunday morning, Highway Patrol officers were standing guard. That night, the state once again rolled its paintbrush of repression over the rainbow.
Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor, didn’t mince words: “More officers babysitting the crosswalk than there were security guards watching the front door of Pulse the night 49 people were murdered. By a lot.” His anger is a reminder that this fight is about far more than paint—it’s about memory, accountability, and a community’s right to grieve in color.
A Wider Assault on LGBTQ Visibility
The crackdown isn’t stopping in Orlando. The Transportation Department has signaled it plans to wipe out rainbow crosswalks across Florida. Protests are already scheduled in Fort Lauderdale, Key West, and Miami Beach, where local leaders are warning that the state is attempting to erase LGBTQ existence from public view.
Fort Lauderdale’s openly gay mayor, Dean Trantalis, called it bluntly: “It’s an attempt to try to erase the presence of anything to do with the LGBTQ community.”
That’s what makes this battle so raw: the rainbow stripes aren’t just pretty paint—they’re a declaration that queer lives matter, that queer love matters, and that the 49 souls who died at Pulse will never be forgotten.
Why It Matters for LGBTQ People
For queer Floridians, especially survivors and families of the Pulse tragedy, the state’s actions are a gut punch. The rainbow crosswalk isn’t a traffic gimmick—it’s sacred ground, a place where grief and pride intersect. To see it repeatedly blotted out by government orders is to be told that LGBTQ mourning, resilience, and visibility are not welcome.
And yet, every chalk line drawn by protestors tells another story: that no amount of black paint can erase a community’s pride. The Pulse rainbow will live on, whether on the street, in memory, or in every queer Floridian who refuses to be silenced.
Florida’s war on rainbows may be heavy-handed, but the LGBTQ community is proving—once again—that love refuses to fade.