Miami Beach is expected to soon become the latest locality to receive a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) order to remove its rainbow roadway markings recognizing the LGBTQ community.
City officials say they won’t comply easily.
Commissioner Joseph Magazine said on Facebook that FDOT informed Miami Beach that the city “must remove all ‘artistic crosswalks,’ specifically the rainbow colored crosswalk on Ocean Drive and 12th Street, which has for so long stood as a welcoming sign to our LGBT community.”
“This is complete and utter bullshit that the state has no business getting involved in,” he said. “I am unequivocal in my support and championing of our LGBT community and that crosswalk was a welcome sign for everyone. It bothered no one.”
Commissioner Alex Fernandez, Miami Beach’s only openly gay elected local official, said he and others at City Hall anticipate receiving formal notice from the state to remove the crosswalk, which was installed in 2018.
The state gave similar orders recently to Delray Beach and Key West, which also plan to fight the mandate.
FDOT has warned that noncompliance beyond Sept. 3 could lead to state funding cuts or direct removal of the markings by the agency.
“As I’ve repeatedly stated, we must appeal this order once it is received and resist. Our Pride crosswalk was properly approved, it is safe, and it reflects the values of inclusion that define Miami Beach,” Fernandez said. “At a time when Floridians face real challenges, this is a distraction and a solution in search of a problem.”
Miami Beach Republican Rep. Fabián Basabe, who voted in 2023 to expand Florida’s restrictions on classroom LGBTQ inclusion to all public school grades, sent Purdue a letter Tuesday requesting a public hearing on the matter.
“My LGBTQ community in particular has expressed that they constantly feel under attack,” he wrote. “It is important to me that the State listen to these voices directly, in a fair and transparent process that respects everyone who calls Miami Beach home.”
In a separate statement, Basabe called debate over the crosswalk “performative politics … Miami Beach leaders have chosen (to use as) another staged distraction.”
“Instead of working on affordability, safety, and accountability … they want to fight over symbols rather than do the work of fixing what is broken,” he said, adding that the city’s Pride Park is “the appropriate place” for rainbow markings, “not the middle of an active roadway.”
The relatively new state rules stem from a June 30 memo by FDOT Assistant Secretary Will Watts, who wrote that “non-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly contribute to traffic safety” could jeopardize driver and pedestrian safety.
“Examples of non-compliant surface pavement would include any pavement markings … associated with social, political, or ideological message or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control,” Watts wrote.
Sharing the memo on X two days later, FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue noted that the rules are supported by guidance President Donald Trump’s administration released July 1 that roads “are for safety, not political messages or artwork” and that Governors should remove any such markings from their streets.
“Great to now have our federal partners also aligned behind this same common-sense policy,” he said.
Other cities are bracing for similar scrutiny. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he expects that FDOT will question his city’s street art, while Wilton Manors officials argue their rainbow bridge artwork shouldn’t be considered noncompliant, since it’s only on the side of the structure.
There are also rainbow crosswalks in Orlando and St. Petersburg. Others in Boynton Beach, Gainesville and West Palm Beach have complied, or are complying, with FDOT’s order.
Magazine said he will file a resolution next month to accept two benches for Lummus Park near the city’s crosswalk for residents to paint “in the same rainbow design.” He vowed to pay for the benches.
“As I will be purchasing the benches, NO taxpayer dollars will be used,” he said. “I already want to take that talking point away.”
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