Besides the places where sidewalk meets road, where the paint was never removed, there’s no trace of Houston’s rainbow crosswalk left a year after its removal. And as Houston Pride takes place this weekend, the intersection sits as a reminder of what’s changed. Soon, thanks to new rainbow banners, the neighborhood will again be a little bit more colorful.
Last month, LGBTQ+ advocates and organizers with Pride Houston 365, the nonprofit that puts on Houston’s annual Pride Parade, announced that rainbow flags would be put up along Westheimer Road through parts of Montrose to replace the crosswalk. The flags are part of the revived Montrose Banner District, a special city designation allowing for flags to hang from utility poles in a given area. The banner district was started in 2003, and flags were previously hung along the former route of Houston’s LGBTQ+ Pride parade through Montrose. When the parade moved downtown in 2015, the banner district was forgotten.
The City of Houston approved the district’s revival in July. Advocates had hoped that the banners would be installed before Saturday, when Houston’s rescheduled Pride parade will take place in Downtown Houston, though no firm date for an installation was ever set.
A mockup of LGBTQ+ Pride flag banners that will soon hang in Montrose. (Courtesy of Jack Valinski)
But longtime Houston LGBTQ+ activist Jack Valinski, one of the driving forces behind the revival, said that the only remaining barrier was approval from Centerpoint Energy, which owns the utility poles where the banners would be hung. With Pride just days away, it appears the banners won’t be up in time.
“We are still waiting for [the] approval of Centerpoint,” Valinski told Chron. “We think we are near, but it has not happened yet.”
When asked for comment on when they might approve the banners, a Centerpoint Energy spokesperson said that they had given preliminary approval to the banner district and that “everything should be good to move forward.” Houston City Council Member Joe Panzarella, who represents Montrose and has been working to revive the district, told Chron in a text message that conversations with Centerpoint Energy and Pride Houston 365 are in the final phase, and that installation of the banners will come after.
A mockup of LGBTQ+ Pride flag banners that will soon hang in Montrose. (Courtesy of Jack Valinski)
“September, October we’ll have something up,” Panzarella said.
Besides the newly revitalized Montrose Banner District, several other banner districts exist throughout Houston. The Houston Design District in west Houston, the Houston Southeast Cultural Arts & Entertainment District, and the Downtown Houston District all have banners hanging from utility poles that line the streets. The banners in Montrose come as cities throughout Texas are finding creative ways to celebrate historically LGBTQ+ neighborhoods without drawing the ire of conservative state leaders.
While the banners won’t be ready for Pride this weekend, there will still be plenty of celebration Downtown, where the parade has been held every year since the 2010s. Houston Pride will kick off at 5 p.m. Saturday, with the parade starting at 7 p.m.
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This article originally published at Houston rainbow crosswalk replacement nears approval, but not before parade.