Delray Beach has decided to defy the state and keep its LGBTQ+ pride intersection downtown, a move that could draw scrutiny from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
The decision to keep the intersection, at least for the time being, was made this week by a majority of city commissioners. It came three weeks after City Manager Terrence Moore ordered removal of the intersection.
Moore, like officials in Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach, acted in response to a pronouncement from DeSantis’ secretary of transportation.
Delray Beach planned to have a contractor sandblast the intersection to remove the rainbow flag paint colors, said City Commissioner Rob Long, who spearheaded the effort to reverse Moore’s decision. There was a delay by the contractor, Long said Thursday, otherwise the intersection already would be gone.
Delray Beach is not alone in resisting the early-July directive posted on social media by Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, who attached a memorandum warning non-compliant communities that they could lose state funding.
Key West city commissioners voted last week to keep their rainbow intersection and fight efforts to remove it. In late July, hundreds of people gathered to show support for the city’s LGBTQ+ rainbow intersection.
In Fort Lauderdale, the fate of a segment of a road painted the colors of the rainbow progress pride flag is unresolved, with several factors complicating the issue. Mayor Dean Trantalis said he wants to preserve that section of Sebastian Street.
Any decision about changing its status should be made by the City Commission, not the city staff, the mayor said.
Demand from above
The Florida cities’ pride markings on streets have been around for years, occasionally attracting controversy, sometimes attracting people taking selfies of themselves with the rainbow flags, and sometimes vandals.
On July 1, President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, wrote in a social media post that “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.” DeSantis’s transportation secretary, Jared Perdue, wrote a day later that Florida wants to “keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies.”
The transportation policy comes at a time of a rapidly shifting political environment surrounding the LGBTQ+ community and related issues. Efforts that support diversity, equity and inclusion have been disbanded by federal and state governments.
Many local government officials are nervous about the potential risk of landing in a conflict with the state. Besides the Perdue threat to transportation funding, the state has just started selecting cities that it plans to scrutinize as part of its DOGE examination of how local governments are spending money.
Boynton Beach quickly complied. On July 16, the city covered its rainbow intersection in black paint at the direction of the City Manager Daniel Dugger. And West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James decided the city would remove its rainbow intersection. Bricks already bought for an upgrade will be repurposed for a pride monument at a nearby park.
Resisting
On July 23, Moore said in a statement the removal work of the rainbow painting at Northeast 1st Street and Northeast Second Avenue “is expected to begin in the coming days.”
At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, Long forcefully argued that the city shouldn’t remove the pride intersection, which he saw as “an effort to silence and basically take away visibility from our LGBTQ+ community.”
Removing the intersection would leave “a legacy of cowardice and capitulation,” Long said Thursday.
“Everyone’s so scared of the state right now,” said Long, who is a Democratic candidate for state representative in a special election to fill a vacancy later this year.
Long said local governments should have the ability to make local decisions “especially when it comes to the character and values of our own community. So that raises a question: When do we stand our ground and when do we surrender without even a conversation?”
He rejected the Trump and DeSantis transportation secretaries arguments that they were acting to enhance public safety. “Let’s be honest, we all know this is not about traffic safety. This is political. It’s part of the same culture where symbols of inclusion are targeted precisely because they represent acceptance. It’s about erasing the visibility of our LGBTQ+ people at the same time when their rights are again under direct threat,” Long told his colleagues.
Long said it was premature to act given that the city hadn’t received any notice of the state’s intent to enforce the directive. And, he said, the state’s authority to tell the city what to do with city streets is unclear.
Commissioners Angela Burns and Tom Markert agreed with Long, and said the intersection should remain in place, with removal possible if the city gets a specific and direct order from the state.
Video of the commission meeting shows Mayor Tom Carney didn’t express an opinion.
And Commissioner Juli Casale said she was glad Moore had made his earlier decision, overturned by his colleagues. “I would thank the city manager for taking the initiative and not making us make a hard decision.”
The Key West City Commission declared on Aug. 6 that it was keeping its intersection, according to city meeting minutes.
Commissioners voted 5-0, with two members absent, to oppose removal of the intersection declaring their “unwavering support for the continued presence of the rainbow crosswalks” which they called “a vital expression of the City’s identity and values.”
Key West directed the city attorney to assess “all available options,” including attempting to negotiate with the state for a waiver and litigation if necessary
On July 26, hundreds of people gathered for a show of support for the Key West LGBTQ+ intersection at Duval and Petronia streets, said Rob Dougherty, executive director of the Key West Business Guild. Many also attended the City Commission meeting. The intersection was first installed in 2015, Dougherty said, and replaced once after a street repaving.
Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel
Joey Lachimia and Richard Arsenault, of Fort Lauderdale, take pictures in front of the first rainbow crosswalk in Broward County, on Sebastian Street in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. The crosswalk was a temporary sticker unveiled before the Pride Fort Lauderdale festival before painting of a permanent marking. (Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Fort Lauderdale street
Six weeks after the pronouncements from the federal and state transportation secretaries, Fort Lauderdale does not know what it wants to do about the block of Sebastian Street between State Road A1A and Seabreeze Boulevard, painted the colors of progress pride flag.
Trantalis said its location “is not a crosswalk and is not a traveled street,” which he said puts it in a gray zone as far as state and federal edicts that appear to focus on crosswalks.
Further complicating the question is the rainbow installation has been damaged by a nearby construction project.
Emails among officials in the City Attorney’s Office, the Engineering Department and the Transportation and Mobility Department, recently released in response to a public records request from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, show discussion but no conclusion about whether the city should require the developer to restore everything including the flag or restore the street with no flag.
One official wrote that the developer was willing to restore the rainbow colors.
Staffers have been dispatched to take pictures of its condition and have researched the ownership and confirmed it belongs to the city, emails show.
As of Thursday afternoon, the city has not given directions to the construction company about how to proceed, Ashley Doussard, Fort Lauderdale’s director of strategic communications, said via text.
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.