{"id":520211,"date":"2026-01-16T11:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520211\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T11:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:17:28","slug":"san-antonio-rainbow-crosswalk-removal-splits-lgbtq-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520211\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio rainbow crosswalk removal splits LGBTQ+ community"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a road crew started the morning covering up one of San Antonio\u2019s most colorful landmarks, leaving seemingly no trace of the city\u2019s rainbow crosswalks by noon. The only remnants of the crosswalk were cylinders extracted from each color of the rainbow, to be saved by the city for historical purposes. <\/p>\n

For state and federal transportation officials, scrubbing the intersection at North Main Avenue and Evergreen Street meant removing \u201cpolitical\u201d imagery from San Antonio\u2019s tax-funded streets \u2014 an initiative they threatened millions in transportation funding over in cities across Texas.<\/p>\n

For local advocates and members of the LGBTQ+ community, paving over the centerpiece of San Antonio\u2019s newly anointed Pride Cultural Heritage District was a physical manifestation of what they feel is an increasingly hostile climate in the state toward gay and transgender people. That animosity has also influenced San Antonio\u2019s proposed alternative to paint rainbows on the sidewalks near the intersection where the crosswalk was. <\/p>\n

While the project could potentially make the district even more colorful than before, it has been criticized by some as too quick a solution that overlooks the larger shift in Texas\u2019 treatment of its LGBTQ+ community. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt does just feel like a band-aid on a gaping wound, and it\u2019s not going to hold everything that\u2019s coming out of it,\u201d said Wyatt Collier, a San Antonio resident and transgender man who protested the removal of the rainbow crosswalk on Tuesday. \u201cThere needs to be more action than just paint on the sidewalk for us to feel safe again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sidewalk project has also hit roadblocks, in part because of a lawsuit from the city\u2019s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group that helped install the crosswalk, along with objections from two City Council members who echoed Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>\u2019s concerns over the rainbow\u2019s alleged politicized messaging.<\/p>\n

Political paths<\/p>\n

James Poindexter, an executive with Pride San Antonio, has been among the most vocal defenders of the crosswalk and one of the city\u2019s harshest critics as it prepared to remove the landmark. Pride San Antonio helped fund the rainbow crosswalk after the City Council unanimously voted in 2018 for an ordinance to install the art. <\/p>\n

A Jan. 5 memo from San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh\u2019s office scheduled work on the new sidewalk art to be completed by Jan. 9. Walsh paused the installation, however, after Poindexter and Pride San Antonio filed a lawsuit last week against the city in a last-ditch effort to block the crosswalk\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n