A pile of broken, colorful concrete pieces was all that remained of Houston’s rainbow crosswalk as the sun rose on Monday. Construction crews tore up Texas’ first gay pride crosswalk, a beloved feature of the historically LGBT Montrose neighborhood, in the early hours of the morning.
The crosswalk, which originated as a memorial for a cyclist killed there in a 2016 hit-and-run, first came under fire a few weeks ago when the city repainted it following construction in the area. Online right-wing account Libs of TikTok ripped a video from the Chron covering the repainting and called for the crosswalk’s removal, tagging Gov. Greg Abbott and seemingly kickstarting his crackdown on rainbow crosswalks across the state.
Now, the colorful crossing has been torn up yet again, after Gov. Abbott directed TxDOT on Oct. 8 to withhold funding from cities who did not remove “political ideologies” from roadways. TxDOT doubled down on Abbott’s order, instructing cities to remove any of these installations within 30 days.
“Them coming back and taking it all up just seems a bit ridiculous,” said Tessa Freeman, owner of FIX Coffeebar on Westheimer, a few storefronts down from the crosswalk.
“People love the crosswalk,” Freeman told The Barbed Wire. “I think it had an impact on other states wanting to do the same thing.”
After the Montrose rainbow crosswalk was painted in 2017, many more sprung up around the state that are now in various stages of removal. Houston advocacy groups posted last night that the crosswalk would be removed between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m and called for community members to come “guard the intersection and mourn its removal.” Protestors gathered and refused to move from the rainbow crosswalk as work crews prepared machinery, according to Chron.
Houston Police and METRO Police were on the scene, Chron reported, but no arrests were made until the arrival of Houston Police’s Special Response Team, officers that are specially trained in large crowd dispersal, disaster preparedness and chemical munitions.
Officers arrested four protestors for blocking the roadway, HPD Public Information Officer Shay Awosiyan confirmed to The Barbed Wire. Officers first zip-tied a woman in a folding chair who, according to Chron, had been reading Herbert Marcuse’s “Counterrevolution and Revolt” throughout the protest. They also arrested activist Ethan Hale, a long-shot Houston City Council candidate, according to Chron, and two other unknown individuals.
Despite the arrests — and fevered opposition to the removals across the state, which is home to 1.8 million queer people — the removals are happening because of Abbott’s funding threats. But also because of messaging from the Trump administration, which has become increasingly hostile to queer and trans Americans as it has waged culture wars against vulnerable communities.
As that messaging has taken hold, some Texans cheered on the decision online. Richard Rathbun, who lives in Katy but regularly visits the historically queer Montrose area, told The Barbed Wire that the crosswalk “doesn’t bother me, but I don’t appreciate it.” Speaking from the nearby coffeeshop, he said, “I’m a Christian, and I really don’t like celebrating homosexuality.”
Similar sentiments online were met with ire, from “Sad responses on here by even sadder people who likely call themselves Christians” to “Yeah let’s literally scrape away one of the few things still fighting the ‘Houston is flat and beige allegations.’”
“Montrose’s rainbow crosswalk is more than a symbol of LGBTQ community pride,” State Rep. Gene Wu, who represents Houston, said last week.
“Our communities will not stay silent,” Wu added. “We will fight back against this attack on local control and vulnerable communities who deserve safety, dignity, and visibility.”
Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, one of the first openly LGBTQ mayors of a major American city, told NBC News she was “surprised that the governor has so little to do that erasing rainbow crosswalks has become his priority.”
Libs of TikTok, which seemed to instigate Abbott’s funding threats, was tied to ten hate incidents over two years in Texas, including bomb threats that were lobbed at four Planet Fitness locations after she highlighted their trans-inclusive locker room policies, according to GLAAD’s ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker).
Fellow Texans, it’s our sad duty to report that our governor appears to be taking his marching orders from a right-wing social media account (and, yes, we’re talking about … sigh … Libs of TikTok).…
Across the country, as rainbow crosswalks are painted over, hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community have continued to rise. And queer Texans have voiced disappointment that local leaders aren’t stepping up in their defense — at least outside of San Antonio.
After the city’s METRO department announced the impending removal, Houston Mayor John Whitmire called Abbott’s order “counterproductive” in a city council meeting, according to Chron. However, the mayor ultimately said that the city could not afford to risk losing their funding over the crosswalk.
“We can use other means to show our support for those that support and are passionate about the symbol of the rainbow,” Whitmire said at the meeting.
Other Montrose residents seem to share the belief that the fight for LGBT representation in Houston is far from over.
Next to the ravaged crosswalk this morning remained messages chalked in rainbow by the protestors on the adjacent sidewalks, reading “don’t erase us” and “we are lucky to witness queer love.”
“I think the people of Montrose are resilient,” Freeman, the coffeeshop owner, told The Barbed Wire. “It will be interesting to see what comes after this.”
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