Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ self-declared war on rainbow crosswalks reached its latest stop in the Florida Keys on Tuesday when the Florida Department of Transportation painted over gay mecca Key West’s Pride display in the dead of night.

The erasure of the tiny crosswalk, measuring just six feet deep at the intersection of Duval and Petronia Streets, gave the lie to DeSantis’ claim that such street art is a traffic hazard in search of fatalities. Bikers and pedestrians at the narrow intersection regularly move faster than motorized traffic in the slow-paced resort’s gayborhood.

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The overnight erasure was met with an “outpouring of emotion from our community,” said the Key West Business Guild, which was “deeply disheartened by the removal of the Rainbow Crosswalk in the middle of the night.”

“While this action has caused pain and disappointment, we are not deterred,” the group said in a statement posted on social media. “The Guild’s board and staff remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that the LGBTQ+ community is visibly represented in our Historic Gayborhood.”

“We encourage everyone to make their voices heard by reaching out directly to the Key West City Commission tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM,” the Guild said. “Together, we will move forward, stronger, prouder, and more united than ever.”

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