Protestors including senator re-colour Pulse nightclub memorial crosswalk: ‘We will NOT be erased’
The Pulse nightclub memorial crosswalk was erased by the Florida state government. (X/Twitter/Getty)
The Pulse nightclub memorial crosswalk was erased by the Florida state government. (X/Twitter/Getty)
Protestors are fighting against the erasure of a rainbow crosswalk dedicated to the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting victims by colouring the walkway back in.
The rainbow crosswalk outside the abandoned LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was removed by city officials under a new directive from US president Donald Trump.
The memorial road crossing was created in dedication to the 49 victims of the 2016 mass shooting, the deadliest in US history.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis noted that the Department of Transportation was given the order by the Trump administration. Defending the actions, he said: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”
Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer expressed his shock and dismay at the removal of the memorial on Orange Avenue, calling it a “cruel political act” that has left the city “devastated.”
Last night, the DeSantis administration snuck in and tried to quietly erase the state-approved crosswalk to honor the 49 people murdered at Pulse Nightclub.
— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) August 22, 2025
So this afternoon, the community showed up to do a little chalking.
I love you, Orlando. 🌈 pic.twitter.com/gDDCaFY7oC
Protesting its erasure, over a hundred activists took to the crosswalk early on Friday (22 August) to colour the rainbow back in using chalk.
Florida state Democratic senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, who participated in the protest, shared photos on X/Twitter, writing: “We will NOT be erased.”
“The DeSantis regime may have ripped the colours off of the crosswalk at the Pulse Nightclub Memorial, but we will NOT be erased,” he wrote in a subsequent post. “If the state gets their way, there will be a rainbow mural nearby that is bigger, queerer, and more colourful than they ever imagined.”
@carlosgsmith A double rainbow just showed up in the sky outside Pulse nightclub. The universe is with us. #LoveWins #showyourrainbow🏳🌈 ♬ original sound – Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith
Pulse nightclub survivor brands DeSantis ‘cowardly’
Responding to Ron DeSantis’ statement defending the erasure of the Pulse Nightclub memorial crosswalk, activist and survivor of the 2016 terror attack, Brandon Wolf, called the governor “cowardly” for approving the directive.
In an X/Twitter post on Friday, Wolf said to DeSantis: “A memorial to my dead brothers isn’t political. But your cowardly, dead-of-night erasure of it sure is.”
The campaigner, who also attended the re-colouring protest, further criticised Republican lawmakers, writing in a subsequent post: “The same people desecrating a memorial to the 49 people murdered at Pulse nightclub will demand monuments to Confederate traitors.”
Earlier this year, Trump announced plans to change the names of several military bases to honour soldiers who fought for the slavery-endorsing Confederates during the American Civil War.
Wolf further blasted DeSantis’ claim that Florida roads should not be “political,” noting that, in 2023, the governor signed a bill renaming a Florida road after right-wing political commentator Rush Limbaugh.
In a post commemorating the activists who re-coloured the crosswalk, Wolf said: “I love you, Orlando.”
