Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) slammed Florida cities that are resisting his mandates to remove their Pride crosswalks, accusing them of virtue signalling. Its like they think that they should just be a law unto themselves, DeSantis said, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Youre always gonna have the Key Wests of the world that are going to virtue signal. Thats just what they do. Related Federal road safety study interrupted after vandal destroys rainbow crosswalk While multiple cities have already given in and painted over the Pride intersections, a few, like Key West and Delray Beach, are fighting the administration, which is clearly angering DeSantis. He declared during a press conference, Were not doing the commandeering of the roads to put up messaging. 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 While the Pride intersections are no doubt a significant motivation for the new no street art policy from the anti-LGBTQ+ DeSantis administration, the state is implementing it across the board. Officials are forcing municipalities to remove street murals expressing support for everything from racial justice to police forces. Some of the reported 400 murals on the list to be removed are also merely art pieces with no underlying message including one outside a school in Tallahassee created by students. What I would tell kids is we have a, you know, representative system of government, DeSantis said to defend his actions. People elect their representatives. Theyre able to enact the legislation with the governors signature and then when that happens, then obviously people will conform their conduct accordingly.At the same press conference, state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue made clear that prior approval for street art by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is no longer relevant now that DeSantis has signed a law forbidding it.Pavement art is not allowed and were removing everything thats not compliant with state/federal standards and thats the approach that were taking, Perdue said. Both state and federal officials have justified the actions by claiming street art is distracting to drivers. The data, however, supports the complete opposite. TheBloomberg Philanthropies 2022 Asphalt Art Safety Studyfound that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists drop 50% at painted intersections. It also reported a 25% decrease in conflicts between drivers and pedestrians, a 27% increase in drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians, and a 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing when the walk signal was not lit at intersections involving public art. The data also revealed that injuries resulting from crashes drop 37% in painted intersections. Lets be honest. We all know this is not about traffic safety. This is political, said Delray Beach Vice Mayor Rob Long during a commission meeting, where he cited this data. Its part of the same culture war climate where symbols of inclusion are targeted precisely because they represent acceptance. Its about erasing the visibility of our LGBTQ+ people at the same time when their rights are again under direct threat. But the DeSantis administration is focused on nothing but forcing cities to comply with its orders, threatening a revocation of funding as well as saying state officials will remove the murals and charge cities for the work if they wont do it themselves. This already happened in Orlando. Last week, FDOT officials painted over the crosswalkin the dead of nightwithout notifying city officials. They then painted over it a second time on Sunday morning after protestors restored the rainbow colors to the road. The state is also now spending time and money on having patrollers surveil the area. Its silly, said state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D). The amount of money and time being spent by the state on a crosswalk when theres so many better uses for it to fix potholes, for example.Youre creating controversy over a sidewalk, she added. No one cared about it before you made it a deal.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.