PCCNF Holds Pride Rally Amid Imminent Rainbow Crosswalk Removal
Gainesville residents organized by the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida (PCCNF) held a pro-LGBTQ+ rally at City Hall and the Hippodrome Friday evening amid the upcoming removal of rainbow crosswalks installed around the city.
Last week, the Gainesville City Commission voted to remove the crosswalks to comply with a memo by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) that bans art on traffic surfaces when it isn’t in explicit connection to public safety or traffic control.
Mayor Harvey Ward and city commissioners said they didn’t want to vote to remove the crosswalks but had to because FDOT threatened to take away millions of dollars in transportation funding.
Ward, along with Alachua County Commissioner Mary Alford and Gainesville City Commissioner Casey Willits, gave speeches at the rally to speak out against the state’s policies and affirm their commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.
Ward said, “I appreciate those of you, which is most of you, who’ve given lots of support, but I appreciate those of you who are pissed off, because guess what, I’m also pissed off. I’m pissed at myself for having to be in this situation, but I’m very pissed off at the people who put us in this situation.”
Ward said he believed state officials were watching his speech and would be marking down that he said he was “pissed” at them.
Ward said the city has “no variation” in their commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. “We’re gonna have to move some crosswalks but we’re gonna add more things,” said Ward. “When they bring force to us, we don’t have any force to bring back. We have one legislator in this county out of five in the Florida legislature who is on our team.”
Referring to Republican state officials, Ward said, “Now they do some good things and—you know— bless their hearts for whatever it is they do, but they’re not on this team.”
Ward concluded his speech saying, “What we can do is we can be like water… There is nothing more destructive in the long run than water. We can take down a lot of systems by being like water. If they block one path, we’ll go around and find another path. If they dam that one up, we’ll go around the damn dam and find another way to do it… I wish I could tell you we could swing back and punch the bully in the nose, but that’s not where we are—metaphorically, of course—I’m not talking about punching anybody in case ICE is watching… We can undermine the foolishness they’re trying to put on this community and every community in America, and we will win by being like water.”
Alford spoke about the late gay rights activist and her friend, Terry Fleming, who helped create the PCCNF and the rainbow crosswalks. Alford said Fleming is one of the people who convinced her to run for office and that every time she walks on the rainbow crosswalks she is reminded of her commitment to the community.
Alford said, “Even when I have a terrible week like we had this week where we had DOGE people up our butts—excuse my language—and we had an active shooter drill in the county… Even when I have a terrible week, I go across those crosswalks and it makes me happy, and I’m gonna miss them so much.”
After hearing speeches, attendees of the rally marched from City Hall to the Hippodrome Theater while crossing the rainbow crosswalks along the way.
Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers were present at the rally and temporarily shut down University Ave so attendees could safely cross.
PCCNF President Donn Smith-Lopez, who hosted the rally, thanked GPD for attending and said, “They are here to protect us and keep us safe.”
After getting to the Hippodrome, rally attendees heard from Willits, who said community members are the ones who truly enforce decisions, not politicians.
“Elected officials—-you know—vote on boring stuff,” said Willits. “The people who change hearts and minds every day are our leaders in all these organizations.”
Willits went on to say that he and many other members of the LGBTQ+ community have chosen Gainesville as their home because it offers a safe haven.
“In our refuge, we’ve grown accustomed to not feeling fear, isolation, hate [and] persecution,” said Willits. He said the FDOT memo came from “ideological appointees.”
“They want us back in the closet,” said Willits. “They want to erase all signs of us so that it’ll be easier when it comes time when they want to erase us from our community.”
PCCNF is holding a chalk-themed protest Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until noon over the rainbow crosswalk removal.
