Forced to remove rainbow crosswalks under a state edict to erase "political" messages from their streets, some Texas cities are finding new and colorful ways to celebrate Pride and their LGBTQ+ communities.
In El Paso, street lamps have been wrapped in Pride flags. Dallas recently unveiled public library steps adorned in multicolor fashion. In Austin, residents last week painted hearts of all shades onto a downtown mural. All of the permanent displays channeled support for LGBTQ+ residents in the same spaces the crosswalks once memorialized.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the mural is meant to help Austin residents show solidarity with their LGBTQ+ neighbors while pushing back against the crosswalk removal.
"We're going to do more to show our love and our respect and our appreciation for all of our people, and we're going to do it in a way that's clearly Austin," Watson said. "A beauty of the mural was also that we could encourage others to come down and be part of it."
Many of Texas' major municipalities have used rainbow crosswalks to mark areas steeped in LGBTQ+ history. But after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Transportation to withhold federal and state road money unless local officials eliminated colorful road displays, cities are being more intentional as they find new ways to uplift LGBTQ+ residents.
Abbott's October order sought to promote safety by eliminating roadway art that might "advance political agendas" and followed a directive from the Federal Highway Administration that established similar requirements.
Many LGBTQ+ advocates believed the order targeted Pride-inspired rainbow crosswalks, but it also caused other designs to be removed, including painted yellow letters spelling "Black Artists Matter" in Texas' first Black cultural heritage district in Austin, crosswalks honoring the Guadalupe River in Kerrville and others that are scheduled to be removed or are already gone.
Local officials could apply for exemptions to the removal order, but it's unclear whether any were granted by the state, and the transportation department denied all of the applications to keep rainbow crosswalks. The agency did not answer questions about whether any roadway art was granted an exemption.
Businesses and residents have also worked to restore color to intersections in lieu of now-banned rainbow crosswalks. In Dallas' Oak Lawn, recognized by the Texas Historical Commission for its LGBTQ+ history, the Methodist church steps were painted with rainbow colors days after Abbott issued his directive.
The church stairway is now mirrored a few blocks over by freshly painted rainbow steps at the Oak Lawn Branch Library, unveiled Saturday. The steps are well within the city's jurisdiction and were painted by staff, Dallas City Council Member Paul Ridley said, but the funding came from private donations — the same way Dallas' crosswalks came about years ago.
"That's as it should be, because the community wanted this, they were invested in this, and they came forward with the funds to paint the steps the way they wanted them painted," said Ridley, whose district includes the library. "I'm proud of the community that's behind this and put their money where their mouth is, basically."
For LGBTQ+ advocates, city involvement in the new installations is a "bare minimum" show of support for communities under increasing political pressure.
"This is an attack on LGBTQ visibility and acceptance, and all the other crosswalks were just collateral damage," Brigitte Bandit, a longtime Texas LGBTQ+ rights activist, said during a farewell ceremony for a downtown Austin rainbow crosswalk last week.
Amber Perez, executive director of El Paso's Borderland Rainbow Center, said local government support is crucial as some members of Texas' LGBTQ+ community feel targeted by the words and actions of statewide elected officials, like Abbott's order.
"It's one thing to get it from an organization that's a community center like us, and it is a different thing to get that from your city and county," Perez said. "It's saying that hey, our city and our county are also here for you. You are a member of our community. Your life matters to us."
Disagreement on how hard to push back against the state's funding threats sparked tension between activists and elected officials. Speaking at the Austin ceremony, Bandit suggested Austin sought a state exemption to keep its rainbow crosswalk only after more than 5,000 people signed a petition urging action.
In San Antonio, the city paid roughly $170,000 to install new rainbow-painted sidewalks at the same intersection where it was forced to remove a colorful crosswalk. It was one of the first cities to install new rainbow art, but some community members believed the display didn't do enough to address the underlying rhetoric behind the crosswalk's removal.
That tension culminated in an unsuccessful lawsuit against the city by a leading LGBTQ+ organization and a local conservative group — a flashpoint in the conflict that briefly added pressure from all sides. Ultimately, the city's rainbow sidewalks were unveiled in late March with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Fresh paint and new flags are far from the end of the cities' and organizers' commitment to memorialize support for LGBTQ+ residents. Austin plans to install a historical marker in August to enshrine the area's importance as a longtime hub for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
In Dallas, 18 rainbow-wrapped bike racks were installed by the Cedar Springs Merchants Association, with a "fun, campy ribbon cutting" set for June 29. In El Paso, Perez said community organizers hope to install similar rainbow bike racks.
Austin plans to scrape its rainbow crosswalk off the downtown intersection by the end of July, according to a city memo sent to TxDOT. The new murals at Colorado and Fourth streets are intended to keep the area colorful, but Watson said it has also instilled a new vigilance in the community's support for its residents.
"This has created a focus that we can't be complacent, and so we will continue to keep that focus," Watson said.
Disclosure: Texas Historical Commission has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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