Rainbow crosswalk outside Pulse nightclub removed overnight

Ryan Gillespie and Skyler Swisher, Orlando Sentinel on Aug 21, 2025

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A rainbow crosswalk was removed overnight outside of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, one of the most significant LGBTQ sites in Florida, as part of state and federal transportation officials’ aim to wipe “political banners” from public roadways.

“The Florida Department of Transportation, in the middle of the night, ripped rainbow colors off of a city street,” said state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who visited the site Thursday morning.

Smith, the first openly gay Hispanic legislator in Florida, added the rainbow was intended to be “a tribute to 49 mostly LGBTQ people of color who were murdered here in cold blood” in the 2016 Pulse shooting.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer confirmed in a statement that the state was responsible for the removal and the city was not notified in advance.

Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said the city hadn’t received further directives from the Florida Department of Transportation in recent weeks, after initially receiving notice that the artistic crosswalks were in violation of state and federal guidelines.

Instead, she said, FDOT painted over it overnight. Sheehan said she had just seen the rainbow in place Wednesday.

“We did everything according to state law, everything was compliant,” said Sheehan, the city’s first openly gay elected official. “FDOT never moves that quickly with anything.”

The rainbow was first installed on Esther Street in 2017, a year after 49 were killed and 53 were wounded at Pulse, which was known as an LGBTQ nightclub.

“This is a hostile act by the state government against the city of Orlando,” said Smith, D-Orlando. “The city did not consent to this. They did not approve of this.”

He added that the brightly colored walkway was also intended to help keep visitors to the site safe.

“I can’t believe that the DeSantis administration would insult the families and survivors of the Pulse tragedy in this way,” Smith said. “But I suppose I should not be surprised.”

Jorshua Hernández Carrión, 31, a Pulse survivor, said nobody from the state or city contacted him about the crosswalk’s removal or explained why it needed to be done. He learned about it from the news on Thursday.

“It is frustrating for us and the family members,” he said. “That crosswalk was part of the memorial.”

Hernández Carrión, who was shot in his left arm and stomach, wants the crosswalk to be repainted to memorialize the lives that were lost at Pulse.

Brandon Wolf, who barely escaped the Pulse gunman, said the art was more than a crosswalk. It served as a “show of solidarity” and a declaration that the community wouldn’t forget the tragedy, he said.

“The petty cowards who ordered this sneaky erasure should feel lucky that they didn’t have to watch their loved ones be gunned down — to pick flowers and caskets for their funerals — only for the state to come along and desecrate their memories,” said Wolf, 37, now the national press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign.

The removal of the Orlando crosswalk comes after the state had warned cities whose leaders refused to paint over their own rainbow crosswalks that FDOT would do it themselves if they would not comply. The rainbow crosswalk in Delray Beach, one of the cities that rebuffed the state, was still intact as of Thursday morning.

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