FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Fort Lauderdale City leaders will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the state’s removal order Rainbow crossing There is a risk of losing millions of dollars in other street art and fundraising across Florida.
Under the Ministry of Transport Republican Governor Ron DeSantis By early next month, the community has ordered that crosswalks and other street art be removed. Most of the painted intersections celebrate marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ and the black community.
Driver passed the street mural outside the Carter G. Woodson African American Museum on Wednesday, August 27, 2025, St. Petersburg, Florida (AP Photo/Chris O’Miara)
Critics say it is the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community by the DeSantis administration and Republican-controlled Congress, including restrictions on gender-maintaining care and what Florida says.
“It’s another attempt to wipe out our existence as if it didn’t belong here,” said Robert Boo, CEO of Pride Center Florida, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale in Wilton Manor.
Jason Osborn, a local in Fort Lauderdale who visited the Sebastian Store mural with her boyfriend on Wednesday, said the state’s orders were intended to intimidate and scare people.
But he predicted that it would have the opposite effect, saying, “We’re going to move forward five steps, because now we’re going to paint the building.
Not all of the projects tapped for removal pay tribute to historically marginalized groups. One of them, “Blue” mural On the streets outside Tampa Police Headquarters, city spokesman Joshua Cascio said. It also depicts a bike lane outside Orlando Elementary School, designed by two fourth-graders who won the Florida State Transport Art Contest. The race-themed crosswalk in front of the Daytona International Speedway was painted all night from the end of Tuesday until the beginning of Wednesday.
Miami Beach was given a September 4 deadline to remove the rainbow crossing on Ocean Drive, a time frame similar to that given to other Florida communities.
“They can’t remove our pride and we can’t remove our value of inclusion,” Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez said in an interview this week.
Fernandez plans to propose sue the mandate during the meeting next Wednesday, one day before the state’s deadline.
Among the intersections that were first deleted was a rainbow 2016 Massacre 49 people died outside the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. it was It was painted in the middle of the night Last week, it angered members of the community by workers. Critics’ movements have restored the rainbow colour, but the Department of Transport crew repainted black and white last weekend.
This photo combination shows a rainbow crossing that was removed overnight outside the Pulse Nightclub on Thursday, August 21, 2025. There, 49 people were shot in Orlando, Florida in June 2016.
With the removal of the pulse crossing, the conflict has fallen into the spotlight. It happened a few weeks after the July 1st directive from U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy. Who gave the country’s governor 60 days To identify what he called safety improvements.
“The roads are for safety, not a political message or artwork,” Duffy said.
Desantis is the first governor to actively implement federal guidance. “We don’t allow state roads to be commanded for political purposes,” he said recently in X.
The state Department of Transport said it has an obligation to “ensure safety and consistency of public roads and transportation systems.”
“It means ensuring that our roads are not used for social, political or ideological benefits,” it said.
Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, said the efforts to remove the artwork are “an anti-LGBTQ driving force on behalf of both the federal and copycat versions.”
Cyclist crosses rainbow street murals in St. Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Outside Dr. Carter G. Woodson Africa Museum, Mural Message from a worn street in St. Petersburg, Florida, Wednesday, August 27, 2025 (AP Photo/Chris O’Miara)
Despite orders from the U.S. Secretary of Transport, there are no signs of widespread action to remove rainbow crossings outside of Florida. Sunshine State is a national vanguard in the battle over what is often referred to as the political culture war. They include fights Delete a library book It is deemed inappropriate by DeSantis and other Republicans.
Local officials who challenge the governor’s interpretation of state law do so at their own risk. Desantis used him Executive Office Delete Multiple local leaders From the office, and his administration took advantage of it. The threat of suspension It will especially force compliance from democratically-led cities, counties and boards of education.
In Key West, state transport officials said if the historic downtown pavement markings are not removed by next Wednesday, the state will do it for them.
In St. Petersburg, authorities considered all possible options for maintaining the street murals, but found no way to save them, Mayor Kenneth Welch said. In a recent news briefing, the mayor said he has a new flag, banner and installation that he called “a even stronger, more irrevocable expression of who we are.”
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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters Mike Schneider of Orlando and Kate Payne of Tallahassee contributed to the report.
