ORLANDO, FLA. (WSVN) – Pride is on the line in Florida, as cities across the state face deadlines to remove brightly colored street crossings meant to celebrate the LGBTQ community, but demonstrators are not giving up.
Florida Department of Transportation crews were busy this weekend power washing protest graffiti left at two of its properties in Broward County: Broward Operations Center in Fort Lauderdale and FDOT District 4 in Oakland Park.
The rainbows and a sign reading “Pulse — you will not erase us” — six colors and six words — were removed after they were found on the properties on Saturday.
Meanwhile, protesters in Orlando spent the weekend restoring the rainbow crosswalk across the Pulse memorial with paint and chalk, as rainbow crosswalks remain in the state’s crosshairs.
“We are here, and we are not going away,” said Orlando resident Michelle Green.
“I put a little color on each one of the stripes,” said a resident who identified herself as Sugar.
Some protesters who came to this crosswalk on Friday and Saturday drove from Cocoa Beach and Polk counties.
“I have got kids that are in the rainbow, aind so I’m here for them, I’m here for other people, I’m here for what happened,” said Green.
Green was referring to the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead back in 2016.
One block away, FDOT crews painted over the artwork at a crosswalk in Orlando’s SoDo District that reflected the neighborhood theme.
“Things that are actually important, rather than showing up in the middle of the night, to paint over a sidewalk, it just seems like cowardice,” said Green.
FDOT said the rainbow crosswalk, along with more than a dozen others across Orlando, is not in compliance with state regulations.
The original rainbow crosswalk was installed after the mass shooting at the nightclub. City officials said it followed all safety rules, and the crosswalk was actually installed by the state.
FDOT’s letter to the City of Orlando lists 18 different locations that are not compliant. The Pulse crosswalk and the one painted over in SoDo were not listed.
City officials said they are still waiting to hear from FDOT as to why they removed the Pulse crosswalk in the middle of the night with no explanation.
This past week, Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”
Protesters said remembering innocent victims of a mass shooting is not about politics.
Rob Millerick, who lived in Orlando at the time of the Pulse massacre, spoke with 7News in Wilton Manors about the matter on Thursday.
“It’s not just a crosswalk, it’s a memorial that is a memorial of one of the worst mass shootings we have had in our country,” he said.
The City of Orlando has until Sept. 4 to bring the crosswalks into compliance.
Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale have been given the same notice.
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