Protesters took to the streets in two Florida cities over the weekend to oppose the state-mandated removal of rainbow crosswalks, including one in Orlando established as a memorial to those who died in the 2016 mass shooting at LGBTQ+ nightclub Pulse.

Hundreds of people marched in Miami Beach on Sunday in the “Forever Proud March” organized by Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez and the Greater Miami LGBT Chamber of Commerce, CBS News Miami reports. The demonstration followed a smaller protest in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, which saw dozens of people rallying on a local beach with rainbow flags and signs reading, “We will not be erased.”

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The protests came as the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) continues its crackdown on rainbow crosswalks across the state.

In July, anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a law directing the FDOT “to ensure compliance with FDOT’s uniform system for traffic control devices,” a department spokesperson told Fox 13 in a statement. The law effectively bans all pavement art and murals like rainbow crosswalks, regardless of their political message.

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The new law is a response to a directive from U.S. Transportation Secretary and former reality TV personality Sean Duffy, who wrote in a July 1 letter to the nation’s governors that all non-freeway intersections and crosswalks must be kept “free from distractions.” In a subsequent X post, Duffy said that “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”

While some municipalities have already removed their rainbow crosswalks, the Florida law has been met with resistance. FDOT officials painted over the Pulse memorial in Orlando last month, but were forced to paint over it again after protestors restored the rainbow colors to the road. Protesters have returned to the site multiple times to restore the colors with chalk, leading state police to patrol the intersection around the clock.

29-year-old Orestes Sebastian Suarez was arrested Friday for interfering with a traffic control device after he rubbed chalk under his shoes and left rainbow footprints on the Pulse crosswalk. On Saturday, a judge threw the case out, ruling that police had no probable cause to arrest him.

On Sunday, three more people were arrested during a “Chalk For Pride” protest at the same crosswalk. All three face the same charge as Suarez, according to Orlando’s News 6.

Officials in Key West and Delray Beach are also fighting the DeSantis administration’s directive despite threats from the FDOT that state funds may be withheld from cities that don’t comply.

“It feels like they were trying to scrounge up the next thing, the next petty tactic they can use to make us feel hopeless, to make us feel like nothing, and I think today shows that they failed,” protester Maxx Fenning told CBS News Miami at Sunday’s march in Miami Beach.   

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who also attended the Forever Proud March, told the station that removing the street art doesn’t make sense. “Not only is it arbitrary, but it promotes about hate, it’s about erasing people’s identity, and it’s about taking over local government when local government should have the right to speak up on behalf of its residents,” she said.

While state and federal officials have said that street art distracts drivers, data from the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2022 Asphalt Art Safety Study contradicts that claim. The study found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists drop 50% at painted intersections. It also reported a 25% decrease in conflicts between drivers and pedestrians, a 27% increase in drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians, and a 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing when the walk signal was not lit at intersections involving public art. The data also revealed that injuries resulting from crashes drop 37% in painted intersections.  

“The facts are clear – our rainbow crosswalk is in fact safer than some of our other crosswalks along Ocean Drive,” Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez wrote in a recent Instagram post, “What’s not good for safety is erasing symbols of inclusion – actions that embolden intolerant behavior. I will fight to protect it for our safety, for our freedom, for our dignity, and for the values Miami Beach will never back down from.”

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