In a development that could impact all 50 states and the District of Columbia, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on July 1 announced a “nationwide roadway safety initiative” that political observers say could be used to require cities and states to remove LGBTQ supportive rainbow-colored street crosswalks.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper reports that the South Florida cities of West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach announced last week that they were removing rainbow crosswalks from their streets “as a result of directives from the administrations of President Donald Trump and [Florida] Gov. Ron DeSantis to get rid of street markings that commemorate the LGBTQ+ community.”
A July 1 statement released by the U.S. Department of Transportation says Duffy sent a letter that same day to the governors of all 50 states that followed an earlier letter sent to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser informing them of the department’s “Safe Arterials for Everyone” initiative to be carried out by the Federal Highway Administration.
According to the statement, Duffy pointed out that the new program targets “non-freeway arterial roads” where more than half of U.S. roadway fatalities occur.
“Secretary Duffy also noted in his letter that intersections and crosswalks need to be kept free from distractions,” the DOT statement continues. “This includes political messages of any nature, artwork, or anything else that distracts from the core mission of driver and pedestrian safety."
Although the DOT statement and Duffy’s letter to the governors do not specifically mention rainbow crosswalks, the Sun Sentinel reports that Duffy stated in a July 1 social media post that “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”
The Sun Sentinel further reports that city officials in West Palm Beach said Florida’s Secretary of Transportation, Jared Perdue, who was appointed by DeSantis, made it clear that the state would withhold state funds from cities or other local jurisdictions that failed to comply with the federal policy restricting roadway “distractions” like rainbow crosswalks.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately determine whether the federal roadway directive put in place by U.S. DOT Secretary Duffy has impacted other cities that have installed rainbow crosswalks.
D.C.’s Department of Transportation several years ago installed rainbow crosswalks on a section of 17th Street, N.W. near Dupont Circle. And the transportation departments in Arlington and Alexandria, Va. installed similar rainbow crosswalks – in the Crystal City section of Arlington and the Old Town section of Alexandria.
LGBTQ activists in D.C. and Northern Virginia said officials in their local jurisdictions have not been contacted by the U.S. Dept. of transpiration about their rainbow crosswalks. Daniel Gleick, a spokesperson for D.C. Mayor Bowser, said the mayor’s office has no immediate comment on the rainbow crosswalks developments triggered by Duffy.
Freddie Lutz, owner of the Arlington gay bar Freddie’s Beach Bar, across the street from which one of the two Arlington rainbow crosswalks is located, said an Arlington business group called National Landing that advocated for the Arlington rainbow street crossings told him no opposition has surfaced regarding the rainbow crosswalks from the Va. Department of Transportation.
In Florida, city officials in West Palm Beach, including the mayor, expressed disappointment over having to remove their rainbow crosswalks.
According to the Sun Sentinel, Rand Hoch, president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council and a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter, denounced efforts to force the removal of rainbow crosswalks.
“There’s no reason to have cities have to paint over these or rip them up because the bigots in Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee have nothing better to do than to blackmail and threaten public officials about being welcoming to everyone,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
He also said local officials should not be faulted for removing the rainbow crosswalks under orders from state and federal officials, the Sun Sentinel reports.
Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.
