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St. Petersburg protesters rally to defend Black history and pride murals amid statewide crackdown
In the hours before a St. Petersburg, Florida, city council meeting on whether to remove street art including murals celebrating Black history and LGBTQ+ pride dozens of demonstrators gathered outside City Hall, urging council members to reject the proposal.We see where its going with them erasing history, James Kitchen, the artist responsible for two of the endangered murals, told 10 Tampa Bay. It set a tempo that all the things we accomplish are getting swept right up from under our feet. City paints over Pride crosswalk on orders from Trump & Ron DeSantis This local debate is unfolding against a broader statewide and national push to eliminate Pride-themed public displays. In May, Floridas Department of Transportation (FDOT) enacted a new policy restricting state-owned bridge lighting to only red, white, and blue colors to mark federal holidays, disallowing rainbow lights for Pride Month. In June, FDOT also ordered municipalities to remove rainbow-painted crosswalks, warning that cities refusing to comply could lose state and federal funding. St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth Welch has confirmed that his city is in discussions with FDOT to determine which elements must be removed and whether any exceptions can be negotiated with the state agency. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today St. Petersburg protester Brian Longstreth told 10 Tampa Bay that the FDOT order was obviously very targeted at who theyre trying to make disappear and called on the community to stand tall unified against this.Other Florida cities have already complied with the order, with rainbow crosswalks having been removed in Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach. The memoranda literally blackmails municipalities, Palm Beach County Human Rights Commission president Rand Hoch told 7 News in July. If you dont remove these, we are going to withhold federal and state funds.Earlier this month, Gainesville residents filled City Hall with overflow crowds gathering in the basement to oppose the removal of the citys three rainbow-painted crosswalks. Despite the outcry, however, the city commission voted unanimously to paint over them. The rainbow memorial at the site of the former LGBTQ+ Pulse nightclub where 49 people died in 2016 when a mass murderer opened fire is facing the same threat. That particular crosswalk, the rainbow crosswalk, was put there specifically to be part of the memorial, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said in July. However, the FDOT order mandates that allnon-standard surface markings be removed by municipalities. The current administration is pushing such policies nationwide. In July, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to governors in all 50 states, demanding that they remove rainbow crosswalks, claiming without evidence that the colors distract drivers and cause accidents. Critics have pointed out, however, that a 2022 Bloomberg Philanthropies study found that intersections with asphalt art saw over a 50% drop in crashes.The reason we painted the intersections to begin with, each of the ones downtown, was most of the studies say that it makes it safer, so I dont know what information theyre talking a look at, Dyer said regarding the five murals painted on Orlando intersections.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
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