{"id":436160,"date":"2026-10-23T19:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436160\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T19:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:46:08","slug":"florida-drag-queen-raises-25000-for-pride-by-selling-bricks-from-demolished-rainbow-crosswalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436160\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Drag Queen Raises $25,000 for Pride by Selling Bricks From Demolished Rainbow Crosswalk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida-based drag queen Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9<\/a> has raised over $25,000 from selling the bricks from a Miami Beach rainbow crosswalk that was demolished as part of Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019s ongoing war<\/a> against LGBTQ-affirming roads. <\/p>\n

After the Miami Beach rainbow crosswalk was dismantled<\/a> in October 2025 and replaced with black pavement, some bricks were used to build a pedestrian area in the same city, while others were later put up for auction, per CBS News<\/a>. Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9, real name Eric Swanson, won the auction and decided to sell the bricks to raise funds for South Florida LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations in smaller cities, as The Advocate<\/a> previously reported. Her chief beneficiaries were the Key West and Naples Pride celebrations, which often lack corporate sponsors.<\/p>\n

In a social media post published on Thursday, Ms. Bouv\u00e8\u00e9 announced that she had raised over $16,000 for Naples pride, outpacing her goal of $15,000, as well as over $10,000 for Naples Pride, surpassing her original $7,500 goal.<\/p>\n

After winning the bricks at auction, Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9 washed and repainted them, and then re-colored some of them. She also added a plaque to the bricks honoring where they had once been placed, per the Miami New Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9 sold 50 bricks in four days. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople got so excited about holding a piece of our history, because it\u2019s not the first time we\u2019ve used bricks for a protest,\u201d she told the Miami New Times. \u201cI just love that they\u2019ll have this life all over the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funds raised will go toward a live entertainment stage as well as security for each event, per the Miami New Times. <\/p>\n

Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9 told the local publication that she hopes her fundraiser inspires other people to think outside the box when it comes to helping LGBTQ+ pride celebrations flourish. \u201cI hope it inspires other drag queens to be innovative, to think about how you can be just as creative as you are with your art form, look what you can do to save your Prides,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we\u2019re all going to need the help coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June 2025, DeSantis signed a bill that enabled the Florida Department of Transportation to remove \u201cnon-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly contribute to traffic safety or control.\u201d The federal government followed Florida\u2019s lead. <\/p>\n

Shortly after DeSantis signed the statewide law, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy directed all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, to ensure that roads featured \u201cconsistent\u201d markings that were \u201cfree from distraction.\u201d In a social media post<\/a> last July, Duffy confirmed that rainbow crosswalks were part of the direction. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets,\u201d Duffy wrote, \u201cnot rainbow crosswalks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the best of what\u2019s queer. Sign up for Them\u2019s newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida-based drag queen Miss Bouv\u00e8\u00e9 has raised over $25,000 from selling the bricks from a Miami Beach rainbow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,76292],"class_list":["post-436160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-rainbow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436160","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=436160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}