The fight to repaint a rainbow crosswalk in downtown Delray Beach is over.

During a special meeting Thursday night, city commissioners voted 4-1 to rescind their decision to challenge the state and will not move forward with a legal battle.

Mayor Tom Carney, a lawyer himself, said hiring outside counsel to fight what he calls a losing battle is a gamble with taxpayer money. “Nobody thinks we can win, nobody,” he said. “This is reckless. It’s a reckless disregard by the way of taxpayer money.”

Vice Mayor Rob Long, the lone vote against withdrawing, disagreed. “I don’t see it that way,” Long said. “I see it as taking the lead on something for our residents for a great offense that was done to us.”

During Thursday’s two-hour meeting, city commissioners agreed to drop their plan from Tuesday night, to file a petition challenging the legality of the state’s orders to remove street art. Had the city moved forward with it, the city would’ve joined the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach, which have filed similar challenges in recent days.

Long said he’s disappointed. “This meant a lot to a lot of people,” he said. “I wish we could push back. We were bullied, and we were victimized.”

A driver crosses the intersection of Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue in Delray Beach on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Delray Beach’s pride crossing was created years ago to honor the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando.

Enforcing a statewide ban on street art, workers with the state covered Delray Beach’s LGBTQ+ pride intersection in black paint in the middle of the night early Tuesday. That left a botched paint job as a result of the rain, and cars driving over the fresh paint.

Crews with the Florida Department of Transportation then spent several hours Wednesday sandblasting the colorful intersection and completely removing it.

Delray Beach commissioners plan to talk about other ways to honor the LGBTQ+ community during the city’s regular meeting at 5 p.m. Monday.

WPEC-CBS12 is a news partner of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Information from the Sun Sentinel was used to supplement this report. 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/12/delray-beach-ends-legal-battle-over-rainbow-crosswalk/