Before a large and supportive crowd, Fort Lauderdale officials made the right decision to resist Gov. Ron DeSantis and his hateful obsession with painted crosswalks that he claims “got out of hand.”
Residents should now brace themselves for an inevitable act of retribution by a vengeful and homophobic governor. He has the power to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars for road repair, beach renourishment and other programs.
At a three-hour meeting Wednesday, Mayor Dean Trantalis and commissioners made the only logical choice.
They unanimously voted to appeal the Florida Department of Transportation’s demand that the city paint over four crosswalks colored in rainbow hues as a symbolic gesture of inclusion to the city’s sizeable LGBTQ population.
FDOT nonsensically claims that painted pavement violates a design manual that demands uniformity of “traffic control devices” on state roads. The state also illogically argues that the bright colors are a safety hazard to drivers and pedestrians, when research shows the opposite.
Next step: A lawsuit
The city’s action means that Fort Lauderdale will get a sham hearing before FDOT, which has already decided the rainbow crosswalks have to go. Similar appeals by Delray Beach and Key West are also pending, and while they won’t succeed, they are a necessary procedural step before the city sues the state.
Other Florida cities that have either erased their crosswalks or are fighting back include Gainesville, Miami Beach, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
In Fort Lauderdale, dozens of people spoke eloquently about why fighting back is important. As they told commissioners, this is not about rainbow crosswalks — it’s about what they represent.
“It’s a symbol of visibility, inclusion and pride,” said Jennifer Jones of the group Hope and Action Indivisible. “We wouldn’t need to paint rainbow flags on our streets if we hadn’t been persecuted in the first place.”
‘We will stand up’
As the crowd applauded, Jones added: “We don’t hurt people. We don’t push our agenda on anyone. We’re just here, trying to live. But when you come for us, we will stand up, and we will not back down.”
Jennifer Jones spoke at a Fort Lauderdale city commission meeting on Aug. 27.
Fort Lauderdale has street art at four locations. The state has threatened in writing to paint over them if they aren’t removed by Sept. 4.
Besides the appeal, the commission voted to hire outside counsel in preparation for a lawsuit challenging the state’s authority to restrict symbols of expression on state roads.
That’s a First Amendment question, but the state’s action also is one more attack on the right of city residents to govern themselves.
The vote to pursue a lawsuit was not unanimous. Commissioner John Herbst voted no, and said it would be a waste of tax money and would further antagonize the DeSantis administration.
He called it politically unwise for Fort Lauderdale to drag FDOT into court at a time when the city is seeking state and federal money to build a tunnel across the New River for a planned regional commuter rail system.
“You don’t go hat in hand to the state and then thumb your nose at them,” Herbst told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.
Lacking context
Herbst said he strongly supports honoring the gay rights struggle, but he has long opposed painted sidewalks as lacking in historical context and serving as an open invitation to vandals, such as the rainbow flag on Sebastian Street near the beach that has been defaced more than once.
The mural recognizes the former site of the iconic Marlin Beach Hotel, a popular gay resort destination in the 1970s and 1980s.
A better gesture, Herbst argues, would be a permanent bronze marker like the one on the beach that honors Eula Johnson, a civil rights activist who led “wade-ins” that ended racial segregation on Fort Lauderdale beach in the early ’60s.
This fight between Fort Lauderdale and the state of Florida should be a teachable moment.
The city can educate residents, especially young people, about the ugly history of homophobia that, like racism, permeated a city that once feared becoming a “gay mecca” that would drive away other tourists.
The passage of time and much work in the political trenches made the city a much more tolerant, diverse and welcoming place.
We also hope that the energy and determination seen in Fort Lauderdale and other cities will become part of a much greater movement across Florida, leading to monumental change at the ballot box in 2026 when people will elect a new governor.
DeSantis delights in these distractions — anything that helps him avoid having to confront the real-life problems of skyrocketing homeowners’ insurance or a lack of housing affordability.
But capitulating to his abusive ways is not an option.
“It’s a vengeance against the community,” Trantalis said at Wednesday’s meeting. “You have to ask: Where does it end? We cannot allow us to be bullied into submission and to allow others to dictate what we should do in our own communities.”
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/08/30/fighting-a-valiant-fight-in-fort-lauderdale-editorial/
