Florida businesses and governments take to walls and parking lots to replace rainbows DeSantis blasted away
As Florida transportations continue a literal erasure of rainbow street art, local governments and businesses are seeking new ways to honor the LGBTQ+ population.
In Delray Beach, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sandblasted an intersection after city officials refused to remove it themselves, City Commissioners this week brainstormed new tributes. According to a local CBS affiliate, that could include establishing an entire Pride Street, putting up murals on a city parking garage, or adding light projects on a water tower.
In Orlando, where the DeSantis administration started his battle against street art by blacking out a crosswalk honoring victims of the Pulse shooting and arrestingpeople who chalked colors back in, private businesses have already started replacing the lost rainbows.
The Se7enBites restaurant just hosted a “Parking Spaces for Pride” opening 49 spots in its lot, one for each victim of the Pulse shooting, to be painted in tribute instead, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Some spaces ended up with rainbow motifs, while others bear messages like “Color the World Kind.”
That came after MojoMan Swimwear, an LGBTQ-owned business in Orlando, painted the area in front of its business with a large progress pride flag. Out Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith spotlighted the new mural in a social media video earlier this month.
“We are not going to be erased as the LGBTQ+ community,” MojoMan founder Lane Blackwell said in the video. “I wanted to show my support as a gay business that is gay-owned and operated.”
In Gainesville, rainbow murals popped up across the city after local rainbow crosswalks were removed, according to The Independent Florida Alligator. That has included a number of murals painted, often in the dead of night, by University of Florida students at the Norman Tunnel on campus, though competing groups have sometimes come in and painted over those works with fraternity letters or pro-Donald Trump messages.
In Sarasota, The Harvest, an LGBTQ-inclusive church, painted rainbow crosswalks on its own private property, according to Patch. That church is led by Pastor Dan Minor, who attended high school with Pulse victim Eddie Sotomayor.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first crosswalk they painted over was at the Pulse Memorial,” he told the outlet. The church, he said, felt compelled to respond to the state action.
The DeSantis administration began removing rainbow murals following directionfrom Transportation Secretary and former The Real World cast member Sean Duffy. After first focusing on rainbow mural that DeSantis criticized as political messaging, the state made clear it would remove all street art in the state.
Some municipalities have continued to fight for their local rainbow crosswalks. Fort Lauderdale has appealed a state order to scrub its streets of color, according to a local NPR station. But legal efforts have fallen short considering the state changed all of its guidance on what is permissible on public streets.