Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones<\/a>, who is also gay. \u201cAs an Air Force and Iraq War veteran who served under \u2018don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell,\u2019 my pride is not tied to this paint. It\u2019s in my heart and head.\u201d<\/p>\nIt was Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, a gay City Council member, who helped devise a workaround: paint rainbows on sidewalks instead, in the Pride Cultural Heritage District that attracts many L.G.B.T.Q. people. Sidewalks are not under the jurisdiction of the state.<\/p>\n
In March, those newly colorful sidewalks replaced the crosswalks that had been fixtures of the neighborhood since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, How do we send the strongest possible message to the L.G.B.T.Q. community that we\u2019re not going to be bullied, and that they can get rid of the crosswalks, but we can follow that law and paint the sidewalks instead,\u201d Mr. McKee-Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Mr. McKee-Rodriguez said he considered Mr. Abbott\u2019s directive to be an escalation of anti-gay and anti-trans legislation and policies coming from a Republican-controlled state government. In recent years, state officials have enacted laws and issued orders to limit drag queen performances, gender-affirming care for minors and how gender identity and sexuality are discussed in many public schools.<\/p>\n
Mr. McKee-Rodriguez introduced a first-of-its-kind proclamation in San Antonio recognizing Trans+ History Week during the first week of May. The council later approved it.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Gov. Abbott did not respond to questions about the new sidewalk initiative or the city\u2019s proclamation. Instead, the spokesman, Andrew Mahaleris, said, \u201cTexans expect their tax dollars to enhance roadway safety, not advance political ideologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hector Barrera, who is a member of the city\u2019s L.G.B.T.Q.+ Advisory Board and leans conservative, said he opposed the city spending nearly $200,000 of public funds to paint the sidewalks. He wondered: If the rainbow theme sidewalks were allowed to exist without a City Council vote, what was stopping other groups from adding other symbols around the city?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re opening a Pandora\u2019s box there,\u201d Mr. Barrera said. \u201cWho draws the line and who gets city funds to paint whatever they want on the sidewalks?\u201d<\/p>\n
San Antonio was not the only Texas city to initially oppose, and ultimately go along with, Mr. Abbott\u2019s order on rainbow crosswalks.<\/p>\n
A Houston council member, Abbie Kamin, initially accused Mr. Abbott of overstepping his authority by interfering with local decisions, while Christian Menefee, then the Harris County Attorney, suggested the city could challenge the threats in court.<\/p>\n
In Dallas, the city tried to win an exemption from the state. Council Member Paul Ridley questioned whether the rainbow crossings posed any real safety issue. The rainbow crosswalks in both Houston and Dallas have since been removed.<\/p>\n
In San Antonio, James Poindexter, who is part of Pride San Antonio, a nonprofit that once maintained the crosswalks, said he continued to wish that the city had defended the original markings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to stand up as an L.G.B.T. community, the only way we can do this is to fight back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The issue also resulted in a legal entanglement of two strange bedfellows, a local pride organization and a conservative organization, that ended up as joint plaintiffs suing the city over the rainbow crosswalks.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit organization, Pride San Antonio, opposed the removal of the city-sanctioned crosswalks. And the conservative group, the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum, objected to the use of public funds on what it deemed \u201cpolitical public art,\u201d said Justin Nichols, the attorney representing both organizations.<\/p>\n
Mr. Nichols said during a court hearing<\/a> that both parties came to him separately and that he merged the cases in a single lawsuit for legal efficiency despite their different ideologies. The case was ultimately dismissed without a ruling on the merits.<\/p>\nSukh Kaur, the council member who represents the Pride Cultural Heritage District, said the rainbow-themed sidewalks provided an opportunity to retain a symbol of transgender rights.<\/p>\n
Maria Salazar, a member of the city\u2019s L.G.B.T.Q.+ Advisory Board, recalled feeling pride seeing the new sidewalk markings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolutely worth using public funds for this,\u201d Ms. Salazar said. <\/p>\n
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing a pink hat adorned with the logo of the San Antonio Spurs, Robert A. Chavez smiled at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[111900,122760,98070,113615,111899,82,119895,84,83,4657,9458],"class_list":["post-343999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-christian-1988","tag-homosexuality-and-bisexuality","tag-houston-tex","tag-law-and-legislation","tag-menefee","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-tex","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sidewalks","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}