Texas Cities Face Deadline To Remove Rainbow Pride Crosswalks — And One Isn’t Backing Down
A state deadline is forcing Texas cities to decide whether to remove rainbow crosswalks or risk losing funding.
Featured image: Activist protests at Houston’s rainbow crosswalk shortly before it was removed, by Jason Fochtman via Getty Images
Texas cities are facing a Friday deadline to erase rainbow-colored crosswalks or risk losing millions in transportation funding. Governor Greg Abbott ordered their removal in early October, calling the colorful markings “political agendas” that violate state traffic standards. Cities like San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Dallas are now caught between compliance and protest as the clock runs out.
In San Antonio, the crosswalk at North Main Avenue and West Evergreen Street cuts through the heart of the city’s longtime gay district. It was installed seven years ago and, this summer, officially designated as part of the Pride Cultural Heritage District. Now it could be gone within days. “There’s nothing illegal about this crosswalk,” Pride San Antonio executive James Poindexter told the Texas State Tribune. “There’s nothing political about it. The politics is in [Abbott’s] brain only.”
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Abbott’s directive came through the Texas Department of Transportation, which warned local officials that “non-standard” markings must be removed within 30 days. The order echoes a July letter from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urging states to strip “political messages” from roadways. “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy later wrote on X.
San Antonio officials say they plan to seek an exception, citing data that accidents have actually decreased since the crosswalk was painted. First Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Provencio told the city’s LGBTQ+ advisory board that the intersection has become safer and more visible to drivers. The city stands to lose about $2.3 million in state and federal transportation grants if it refuses to comply.
Other cities have already complied. Houston repaved over its Montrose rainbow crosswalk within days of receiving the state’s letter, despite having just restored it. Austin’s mayor announced the city would also remove its rainbow markings at 4th and Colorado streets. Dallas officials have not yet said whether they will repaint the intersection in Oak Lawn, the site of Texas’s first Pride parade.
Related: Houston’s Montrose Rainbow Crosswalk Erased Overnight After Four Arrests
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, San Antonio’s first openly gay mayor, urged residents to think pragmatically. “We must be smart, realistic and effective, not just idealistic,” she said. “My pride isn’t tied to a crosswalk; it’s in the people and progress of San Antonio.”
A 2022 Bloomberg Philanthropies study found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists drop by half at intersections with painted art. “Ripping them out continues a trend of anti-intellectualism from a transportation viewpoint at the state level,” said State Sen. Molly Cook.
For Poindexter, the order represents something larger than paint. “This is why bullies become powerful—because nobody stands up to them,” he said. “This mentality has ripped across our nation, from the federal level down to the state level.”
