RAINBOW CROSSWALK PROTEST : NPR
The crossing for rainbow pedestrians in front of the Orlando nightclub was removed by transport managers in Florida. The pedestrian crossing was a memorial for those who were killed during a mass shoot in 2016 at the Gay Bar.
Scott Simon, host:
Orlando officials are indignant that the State Transport Department painted on a crossing for rainbow pedestrians outside the old Pulse nightclub. Street art was a memorial of the 49 people killed in mass shots at the LBGTQ + club (PH) in 2016. While Joe Byrnes with public media reports in the center of Florida, the inhabitants protested the surprise erasure this week.
Joe Byrnes, Byline: About 200 people showed up to protest the day after the elimination of the colored pedestrian crossing.
(Soundbite of Horns Klating)
Byrnes: During the demonstration, the Senator of the Democratic State Carlos Guillermo Smith described him as hostile law and quotation, “insults to families and survivors of the pulse tragedy”.
Carlos Guillermo Smith: Somewhere nearby, very soon, there will be a painted wall. It will be bigger.
(Applause)
Smith: It will be stranger.
(Applause)
Smith: And it will be more colorful than they imagined because we will not be erased.
Unidentified protective: Who screams?
Unidentified demonstrators: I scream.
Unidentified protective: Who screams?
Unidentified demonstrators: I scream.
Byrnes: The demonstrators noted signs and agitated of large flags of pride as drivers on South Orange avenue Klaxons. People used chalk to recolor the pedestrian crossing in rainbow shades and scribbled messages.
(SoundBite of Horn Klaxon)
Byrnes: Crouching on the pavement, Alexis Bishop (pH), 29, wrote in pink chalk, queer joy, rest, love, resistance. Bishop says that painting on a memorial to Pulse victims was hurtful.
Alexis Bishop: that’s more than anything. We are all seated here – we are amazed, because why? Why cover it?
Byrnes: Republican governor Ron Desantis wrote on X, we will not allow our state roads to be requisitioned for political purposes. Authorized by a new law of the State, the DOTs of Florida have ordered the cities to remove the art from the street which, quotes, “associated with social, political or ideological messages”. Some cities, such as West Palm Beach, have removed their rainbow pedestrian crossings by themselves. Others, like Key West, repel. Orlando officials did not have this chance. During the manifestation, fragments of real rainbows were visible. For Senator Smith, it was a sign.
Smith: We looked up in the sky …
Unidentified Crowd: Yes. Yeah.
Smith: … and there was not one, but there were two double rainbows …
Smith: … which recalls that the universe is with us.
Byrnes: A few minutes later, the showers came and further erased the crossing of the rainbow.
For NPR News, I am Joe Byrnes in Orlando, Florida.
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