In between the Alachua County Administration building and Bo Diddley Community Plaza lies a rainbow crosswalk.
The crosswalk, first painted in 2019, was meant to welcome all people to Gainesville. Now, new state standards are requiring Florida cities, including Gainesville, to get rid of rainbow crosswalks or risk losing state funding.
On Aug. 23, the city of Gainesville announced the city will begin removing downtown’s three rainbow crosswalks on Aug. 25 to comply with Florida’s Department of Transportation standards, which are based on the Federal Highway Administration’s statutes.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward encouraged the community to join him as he bid the crosswalk farewell on Sunday evening.
“It’s an emblem of who Gainesville is,” Ward said. “We do want everybody to be here — every color of the rainbow.”
Ward voted on the city ordinance that allowed the rainbow crosswalks to be painted throughout downtown. No city funding was used for the project, and he said the forced removal is “insulting.”
The city had the option to keep the rainbow crosswalks, but it would lose transportation funding, Ward said in a speech to a crowd of about 20 people.
A loss of transportation funding would impact the Gainesville Regional Transit System, which already suffered a $2.9 million loss in funding earlier this summer.
“About a third to half of our transit funding comes from the Federal Transits Administration, which is part of transportation,” Ward said. “So we’d be giving up our bus system. We’d be giving up any other road funds that we use.”
Gainesville is not in the position to lose any funds, he said.
Two of the crosswalks are painted on brick, which will be removed and kept for future use, while the crosswalk by the administrative building will be painted over.
Tyler Forest, the vice chair of the Alachua County Democratic Party, called FDOT’s enforcement “state-sponsored homophobia.”
“This has been part and partial with what Ron DeSantis has done during his time as governor,” he said. “He’s weaponized the government against his political opponents, and he perceives the LGBT community as his political opponents.”
The Pride Community Center of North Central Florida showed up to mourn the crosswalk. The group wore and sold T-shirts with a rendition of the crosswalk.
Part of the Pride Community Center’s mission statement is visibility, and the removal of Gainesville’s rainbow crosswalks creates invisibility, center director Dex Lewis said.
“Visability opens minds and hearts, so it’s really important to the queer community to maintain visibility,” they said.
The city will begin working on the crosswalks at 7:30 a.m. on Monday.
Contact Megan Howard at mhoward@alligator.org. Follow her on X @meganmhxward.
Megan Howard is the Spring 2025 Senior News Director and a third-year journalism major. She's also worked as the Opinions Editor and a Metro and University reporter. Outside of the newsroom, Megan takes care of her 4-year-old dog Lucy, reads and journals.
