LGBTQ+ board wants San Antonio to fight state to keep rainbow crosswalk
Unlike Houston, which removed its rainbow cross walk in the early morning hours Monday, San Antonio's remains in place for now.
San Antonio’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board is calling on the city to fight to keep its rainbow crosswalk in the wake of Gov. Greg Abbott’s if such art pieces aren't removed.
“We want to preserve this crosswalk,” board chair Maria Salazar said. “It is not about what is on the street. It is about this community being erased.”
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The art, which was paid for with a combination of city and private-sector dollars, was painted at the intersection of North Main Avenue and East Evergreen Street in 2018.
“I’m looking to the city attorney, the city manager and our mayor to say 'no' — to push back,” Salazar said.
Board member G. Sterling Zinsmeyer called the crosswalk a “celebration of our community.”
“This will not stop,” he said. “And we can’t just sit quietly. I absolutely urge the city attorney to vigorously fight this and for the community to protest if the exemption is not accepted.”
The Oct. 9 threat from Abbott came after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this summer wrote to governors urging them to join a national roadway safety initiative aimed at removing artwork and political messaging from streets.
In a post on X, Duffy said: “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”
The Texas Department of Transportation wrote to cities and counties this month to say they had 30 days to remove any “decorative crosswalks, murals, or markings conveying artwork or other messages” from streets. That would appear to include markings such as the large “TEXAS” painted along the University of Texas’s campus in Austin.
Cities and counties that refuse to comply could lose state and federal transportation funding or have their agreements with the state suspended, unless governments receive an exemption “based on a demonstrated public safety benefit of compelling justification,” TxDOT officials said.
San Antonio is seeking an exemption from the state, arguing that the crosswalk appears to pose no safety risk — and may have made the area safer than it was before, First Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Provencio told the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board on Monday.
Provencio said that in the three years leading up to the crosswalk’s installation, there were two “incidents” at the intersection. In the seven years since the colorful stripes were painted on, there have only been two more. She did not have information on the nature of those incidents.
Several advisory board members called for the city to sue the state if the exemption isn’t granted. Provencio would not say whether the city would take that step.
“At this point, we’re going to follow the process that TxDOT has provided for us to be able to pursue,” Provencio told reporters after the meeting.
The eight board members at Monday’s meeting voted to send a resolution of support for keeping the crosswalk to the City Council for consideration.
The board consists of 13 members, 10 who are appointed by council members and three by the mayor. It advises City Council on issues affected San Antonio's LGBTQ+ community.
The intersection with the rainbow crosswalk is the cornerstone of San Antonio’s Pride Cultural Heritage District. The area, which received the mostly ceremonial designation in June, is home to the annual Pride Bigger Than Texas festival and parade and several LGBTQ-owned or oriented businesses, including Pegasus, Sparky’s Pub, Knockout and Heat.
LGBTQ+ community members have been prominent in the area since as early as the 1960s, according to a report from the city’s Office of Historic Preservation.
Yielding to pressure
Houston paved over its rainbow crosswalk in the city’s Montrose neighborhood Monday.
Four people were taken into Houston police custody on Monday for blocking the roadway. More than 200 people gathered at the corner of Westheimer and Taft on Sunday to protest the crosswalk’s removal.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the city will comply with the state mandate to protect the “hundreds of millions of dollars” that could be in jeopardy if the city didn’t act. He said that there are about 16 installations across the city may need to be removed.
Watson also said that the city will “demonstrate our love for Austinites in other ways.”
“I’ve asked staff to immediately help with a plan to allow for us to represent our diverse community, show our love and pride, and allow Austinites to participate in expression,” Watson said in a statement released on a city message board on Oct. 11. “For example, I envision banners along Bettie Naylor Street, potential permanent fixtures on city-owned property like sidewalks or utility poles, potential painting of sidewalks, and things I’m sure I’m not thinking about.”
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