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The mayor of Orlando, Fla., said that the crosswalk mural, which featured the Pride flag’s colors, was removed overnight this week. Community members protested and have, for now, repainted it.
Aug. 23, 2025, 4:55 p.m. ET
A rainbow crosswalk that was part of a memorial to the 49 people killed in a 2016 mass shooting at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., was painted over this week by the state of Florida, raising outcry from city officials and the community.
The removal of the mural outside the Pulse nightclub, a crosswalk that resembled the L.G.B.T.Q. Pride flag, appeared to be in response to a federal directive issued last month, the latest example of President Trump’s crackdown on what his administration perceives as political demonstrations on public land, particularly those that criticize his policies.
The state’s action came as a surprise to city officials and residents, who said they woke up on Thursday to find the mural gone.
Mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando said in a statement on Thursday that the colorful blocks of the crosswalk had been covered up with black paint overnight.
A video obtained by The Orlando Sentinel showed a road crew painting after 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
“This callous action of hastily removing part of a memorial to what was at the time our nation’s largest mass shooting, without any supporting safety data or discussion, is a cruel political act,” Mr. Dyer said.
The memorial appeared to have been removed by the Florida Department of Transportation, following a letter that the Trump administration sent last month to all the states.
The letter, signed by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, cited traffic fatalities, which he admitted have been trending downward, in saying that crosswalks should be kept “free from distractions.”
He neither specified what those distractions were nor ordered their removal. But in a social media post where he replied to news coverage of the letter, Mr. Duffy suggested it was targeting L.G.B.T.Q. murals.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Mr. Duffy wrote. “Political banners have no place on public roads.”
The federal Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to questions about the mural’s removal on Saturday.
While the Trump administration didn’t appear to have a direct hand in the removal of the mural, it has in recent months removed or sidelined L.G.B.T.Q. flags and art.
The memorial was painted by the city of Orlando at the intersection of Orange Avenue and Esther Street, just south of the Pulse site, in 2017, after thousands of people signed a petition in favor of it.
It was approved by the state’s Transportation Department at the time, according to local television station WESH2.
Mr. Dyer said in his statement that the mural “enhanced safety and visibility for the large number of pedestrians visiting the memorial,” as well as serving “as a visual reminder of Orlando’s commitment to honor the 49 lives taken.”
The massacre at Pulse during Pride month in 2016, which also left 53 wounded, was the country’s deadliest mass shooting at the time.
It roiled the city’s gay community. Nine years after the shooting, the nightclub is permanently closed and the building is set to be demolished later this year, though plans for a multimillion-dollar memorial at the site were scrapped in 2023.
On Thursday, a Democratic state senator posted a video from the site of the painted-over crosswalk. In response, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a social media post that he would not allow the state’s roads “to be commandeered for political purposes.”
Another local television outlet, WKMG News 6, reported on Friday that the state had sent city officials a list of almost 20 other pavement markings that needed to be removed, but the rainbow crosswalk outside Pulse was reportedly not on that list.
The city of Orlando directed all questions about the removal of the mural to the state’s Transportation Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
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Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the shooting at Pulse, on social media accused Mr. DeSantis’s administration of having “snuck in and tried to quietly erase the state-approved crosswalk.”
“A memorial to my dead brothers isn’t political,” Mr. Wolf wrote.
Mr. Wolf also shared a photograph of him and Mr. DeSantis during what he said was the governor’s visit to Pulse in 2019, the year Mr. DeSantis was elected.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday. Mr. DeSantis has previously been criticized for his statements about commemorations of the Pulse shooting and the state’s L.G.B.T.Q. community.
In protest of the repainting, people were seen on Thursday scribbling the colors of the rainbow over the black lines of the crosswalk with bright-colored chalk.
“We will NOT be erased,” Carlos Guillermo Smith, the state senator whose video Mr. DeSantis responded to, said in a separate post.
Mr. Smith, an advocate for the rights of the L.G.B.T.Q. community and whose district includes part of Orlando, was seen crouched over the crosswalk with others on Thursday, chalk in hand.
On Friday evening, as a second night of protests was underway, the crosswalk had been fully repainted in the rainbow colors.
Mr. Wolf shared an image on social media of a rainbow in the sky above the crosswalk.
It’s unclear if the new rainbow paint pattern of the crosswalk will stick around. But people left messages in chalk between the lines.
“Not going anywhere,” one read.
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Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
