US EditionRainbow Returns to Orlando Crosswalk After Florida Paints over Tribute to Pulse Victims
The Florida Department of Transportation cited new rules banning political symbols on roads, removing the rainbow crosswalk honoring 49 Pulse nightclub victims, sparking protests and community repainting efforts.
- In Orlando, workers erased the rainbow crosswalk overnight Wednesday outside the former Pulse nightclub, prompting protesters to return Friday to confront the new black-and-white crosswalk.
- Updated 2025 guidelines published earlier this year ban nonuniform traffic control devices and social messages, and the Florida Department of Transportation said the rainbow crosswalk violated these to ensure safety and consistency.
- At 11:24 p.m. Wednesday, a small road crew of about five arrived and worked roughly 34 minutes, removing the 2017-installed memorial honoring the 49 victims of the Pulse massacre.
- Volunteers and activists repainted the crossing using chalk and paint, while Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, Brandon Wolf, and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer condemned the removal as a `callous action`; city leaders confirmed plans for a Permanent Pulse Memorial with construction expected June 2027.
- The dispute has reignited tensions over LGBTQ+ visibility as municipalities face repainting costs, advocacy groups like the ACLU explore lawsuits, and a statewide repainting directive mandates changes by early September 2025.
38 Articles
38 Articles
Rainbow returns to Orlando crosswalk after Florida paints over tribute to Pulse victims
The removal of a rainbow crosswalk outside the Pulse Nightclub has sparked significant public outcry and has brought attention to the fate of other pieces of street art across Orlando.
Orlandoans Bring Back The Pulse Rainbow Crosswalk, Defy MAGA
As C&L reported last month, former Fox News host and current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged governors to get rid of rainbow crosswalks, even though he had to admit that traffic fatalities had declined in 2024. Duffy pretended he did so in the name of safety but, like everything else the Trump administration does, it’s always MAGA politics first and American safety wherever it’s most expedient afterwards. Duffy barely tried to hide tha…
Florida Removed the Pulse Memorial Rainbow Crosswalk Under the Guise of 'Safety'
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered a temporary halt to any further expansion of “Alligator Alcatraz,” the South Florida Detention Facility (read: concentration camp) that currently houses some 700 detainees. Not because it’s unethical, unfit for all living creatures, and unnecessarily cruel, but because it violated environmental laws due to the “irreparable damage” done to the state’s fragile Everglades. It’s an infuriating ruling, but a small…
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