Following the lead of the Trump administration’s wide-ranging attack on diversity, Florida sent a letter to Delray Beach demanding that the city eliminate rainbow crosswalks by Sept. 3, or the state will remove them. To add insult, Florida would bill these cities for the removal.
Steven C. Braun, the southeast Florida district secretary of the state Department of Transportation, cautioned: “Any additional violations by the City of Delray Beach shall be cause for the immediate withholding of state funds.”
It’s worth noting, vandals have tried to deface rainbow crosswalks before, including in Delray Beach. At least the hooligans had the courage to own their bigotry. Trump and DeSantis instead gaslit the public by absurdly pretending rainbow crosswalks are traffic hazards.
At an emotional Aug. 19 meeting, the Delray Beach City Commission decided to challenge the state in an administrative hearing. Unfortunately, the commissioners seemed to think they would lose their appeal — at which point they would likely comply with the state’s orders.
In the same way the Boston Tea Party was about more than tea, the pitched battle in Delray Beach is much larger than rainbow crosswalks. Accepting taxed tea was seen as accepting Parliament’s authority over colonial legislatures. If Delray meekly succumbs, they will unilaterally be ceding local control to meddling, heavy-handed authoritarians.
Delray Commissioner Rob Long was correct when he said at an Aug. 12 commission meeting, “The state should not dictate every detail of our local governance, especially when it comes to the character and values of our own community.”
Sadly, at the Aug. 19 meeting, several commissioners appeared more concerned with the millions of dollars the DeSantis administration threatened to withhold than the moral price of compliance. Doing what is right isn’t easy and there is a cost — that’s why they call wrongful capitulation “selling out.”
Of course, caving to Trump and DeSantis is no guarantee of future goodwill. The commissioners may soon learn the hard lesson that numerous universities, law firms, scientists, media conglomerates and European leaders have. When you bow down to power-hungry autocrats, they won’t leave you alone. Instead, they keep returning, each time with more onerous demands — until there is nothing left of liberty.
In Delray Beach, the tall shadow of Tallahassee reached deep into a local community to choose paint. Pause for a moment — whether Democrat or Republican — to let that level of overbearing state control sink in.
This is the kind of top-down tyranny that Republicans used to abhor. Conservatives claimed they stood for individualism and freedom of conscience. They said they disdained political correctness, which then morphed into “woke.”
Threatening Delray Beach into submission is the epitome of the state dictating a politically correct way to think. This is an Orwellian example of arrogantly imposing values from above. DeSantis and Trump were supposed to despise woke — and yet, their intrusive behavior shows they love woke, as long as it’s of the right-wing variety. They are completely at ease with canceling ideas and running roughshod over local communities with which they disagree.
If the commissioners throw the LGBTQ community under the bus, who’s next? What will they do if Trump and DeSantis demand school curriculums or museum exhibits that downplay slavery and laud the “honor” of the Confederacy? Will local leaders buckle here too for tainted state bucks?
This is not a hypothetical. At a July 17, 2023 campaign event, DeSantis suggested slavery “helped African Americans develop skills such as being a blacksmith.” More recently, President Trump attacked the Smithsonian Institution for concentrating too much on “how bad slavery was” and not enough on the “brightness” of America. The administration has ordered a major review of museum exhibits.
If DeSantis, once again, sycophantically follows Trump’s lead, will the Delray Beach City Commission, and local leaders in other progressive communities, docilely whitewash our museums and textbooks to downplay slavery? Will they supinely engage in historical revisionism on the Confederacy?
In historian Timothy Snyder’s 2017 book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” he warns against the dangers of anticipatory obedience — the tendency of people to comply with authoritarian demands before being forced to. He frames this as the very first rule for resisting authoritarianism: “Do not obey in advance.”
Delray Beach should follow Snyder’s sage advice. If DeSantis is vindictive enough to withhold state funds, the city should call his bluff. In the media, they could showcase how their constituents would be irreparably harmed — all so DeSantis could play petty monarch and dictate the paint color of an intersection. My bet is DeSantis is a tinhorn bully who will back down if effectively challenged.
At a time of growing authoritarianism, it is critical that strong leaders discover the power of “No.” When asked to participate in oppressive actions — be it censorship, erasure or intimidation — Delray’s commissioners have a moral duty to resist. If they fail to act with strength and honor now, I shudder for the future of our beleaguered democracy and for the bleak, unfree world our children will inherit.
Wayne Besen is the executive director of Delray Beach-based Truth Wins Out and the author of “Lies with a Straight Face.”
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/08/31/rainbow-crosswalks-are-bigger-than-lgbtq-rights-opinion/
