“Political banners have no place on public roads,” he continued. “I’m reminding recipients of @USDOT roadway funding that it’s limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else.”
Back in June, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — who failed to mention LGBTQ+ or Latinx people in his 2025 Pulse memorial statement — signed a bill into law demanding that “non-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly contribute to traffic safety or control” within the state be removed “to ensure compliance with FDOT’s uniform system for traffic control devices.”
Florida Secretary of Transportation Jared W. Perdue praised Duffy for joining “Florida’s proactive efforts to ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies” in a July 2 X post.
“Don’t ever let someone tell you that you are too young.”
Speaking to WESH 2, Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan called the Pulse Memorial crosswalk’s removal “ridiculous.”
“We did everything according to plan,” Sheehan said. “That’s why we weren’t even concerned, because we had done everything FDOT asked. We did it according to FDOT rules. They’ve actually made some of these crosswalks less safe.”
In an August 21 X post of his own, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he was “devastated” to learn that the memorial’s rainbow crosswalk had been painted over.
“This callous action of hastily removing part of a memorial to what was at the time our nation’s largest mass shooting, without any supporting safety data or discussion, is a cruel political act,” Dyer wrote. “While this crosswalk has been removed, our community’s commitment to honoring the 49 can never be erased.”
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Florida Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith called the state’s removal of the crosswalk a “disgusting act of betrayal” in an X post, which included a video of Smith standing at the site.
“[FDOT] illegally vandalized city property without providing the city of Orlando notice or getting their approval to remove this rainbow crosswalk,” Smith said, adding that it was painted “not only to remember the lives of the 49 mostly LGBTQ people of color who were murdered here, but also to keep the pedestrians safe who have come here, year after year, to pay their respects… Of course, they did this in the middle of the night, because they knew what they were doing was wrong.”
