Efforts to remove Miami Beach’s iconic rainbow crosswalk from Ocean Drive’s entertainment district began Sunday afternoon, and by Monday morning, the intersection was entirely paved over in asphalt.
Miami Beach officials fought against the state order, but lost their appeal just two days prior to the removal.
The repainting comes two months after a federal directive to remove “political” or “non-uniform” art from Florida’s roads.
The removals began in late August when an Orlando crosswalk, which served to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting, was painted over. Florida’s queer community fought back by recoloring over the charcoal, but the Florida Department of Transportation continued repainting the crosswalk black.
The Ocean Drive crosswalk was a marker of the annual Miami Beach Pride parade — a beloved tradition for many UM LGBTQ Center student assistants and Pride Ambassadors.
Courtney Hartung, president of SpectrUM and a self-identified biromantic-asexual woman, recalled many fond memories of the intersection during the Miami Beach Pride parade. She called the removal of the crosswalk “heartbreaking.”
“It represented the LGBTQ community here in Miami,” Hartung explained. “It showed our contributions to the community. To me, it just meant representation; it meant visibility.”
Growing up in Florida, Hartung shared that she had never felt unwelcome or unsafe due to her queer identity until recently, with legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education Act also known as the Don’t Say Gay Bill and restrictions on gender-affirming care.
“As laws are being passed, it feels very much more unsafe to be a Florida resident,” said Hartung. “It feels like we are not wanted, because that is what the legislation is saying — that our existence does not matter to them. It feels like it’s becoming harder and harder to live here when this has been home for me since birth.”
Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez and more than a dozen protestors held signs across the street from the repainting. They chanted, “Miami Beach, forever proud.”
To Fernandez and the greater Miami queer community, the walkway represented queer liberation and unrelenting strength.
“This is the story of people’s lives. We’ve suffered decades of injustice, of inequality of discrimination,” said Fernandez. “Then we overcame that. That was the story being told by these bricks. We can’t lose it.”
The commissioner shared that city public works employees collected all of the removed rainbow stones so they could one day be repurposed.