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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Seven beams of laser light lit up the night sky over St. Petersburg<\/a> on Thursday night. It\u2019s part of Winter Pride St. Pete, where organizers say this colorful installation is a response to the removal of the city\u2019s rainbow crosswalk.<\/p>\n Cheers erupted as the lights illuminated the skyline on Central Avenue. People packed outside the Mari Jean Hotel, looking up as these colors stretched for miles.<\/p>\n Rob Hall, executive director of Winter Pride<\/a> St. Pete, described this powerful moment.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a remarkable moment, we have an opportunity to bring this rainbow to the skies of St. Pete,” he said. “It can be seen from over 60 miles away.”<\/p>\n For Hall, this laser light display carries personal meaning. When he came out as an adult, he knew St. Pete was the place he wanted to be.<\/p>\n “When I got to St. Pete, seeing that crosswalk, it was life-changing,” he said. “When it was removed, it had a significant impact on my heart.”<\/p>\n The other side:<\/p>\n Hall says the rainbow display is a direct response to Florida<\/a> Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> and FDOT\u2019s decision to remove street murals and art.<\/p>\n That statewide directive included painting over the Rainbow Progress Pride intersection mural at 25th Street and Central Avenue.<\/p>\n Antonio Luis, who attended the event, says his community has felt those changes.<\/p>\n “We spent this past year getting a lot of spaces erased in the LGBT<\/a> community,” he said. “We\u2019re looking at different ways for those spaces to remain.”<\/p>\n Laser artist Yvette Mattern created the installation. She worked with certified technicians and received FAA clearance to project the lasers more than 50 blocks toward the beaches.<\/p>\n “I am so proud to be able to do this where that rainbow crosswalk was taken away,” Mattern said.<\/p>\n As the bright beams shined over downtown St. Petersburg, Katie Dickieson felt inspired.<\/p>\n “It symbolizes so much joy and being represented in this community,” she said.<\/p>\n RELATED: St. Pete Winter Pride braces for record crowds<\/a><\/p>\n Winter Pride St. Pete is in its second year and has expanded across more venues and neighborhoods since its inaugural celebration.<\/p>\n The laser installation will be back on Friday and Saturday, beginning at dusk and continuing until 3 a.m.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from statements from Winter Pride St. Pete, interviews with event attendees and reporting from previous coverage on FOX 13 News.<\/p>\n St. Petersburg<\/a>Pride<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Seven beams of laser light lit up the night sky over St. Petersburg on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,115,1157,157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-162447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pinellas","11":"tag-pride","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/vlcsnap-2026-02-20-06h10m58s555.jpg\")
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