Dallas crews began removing rainbow crosswalks on Monday, and the city plans to eliminate 30 sites. The work targets rainbow crosswalks, pride crosswalks, and other decorative crosswalks that state officials flagged. Officials say the designs do not meet traffic safety guidelines, so the city is bringing markings back to standard.

State rules drive the decision

A March 20 city memo links the removals to a Texas Department of Transportation notice sent last October. TxDOT said decorative crosswalks that support the LGBT community violate the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Dallas asked for an exemption, but TxDOT denied it on Jan. 15.

Dallas files a compliance plan

Dallas submitted a compliance plan on Jan. 30, and it promised full conformity within 90 days. City leaders also said they would consider other public art options. Officials expect crews to finish removing the rainbow crosswalks by the end of April.

Private money funded the markings

The crosswalks sit on public streets, but private donors paid for them. In December 2019, a foundation raised more than $128,000 for 10 crosswalks on Cedar Springs Road. Local businesses, groups, and individual donors also contributed, and they funded maintenance and reinstallation costs.

Supporters and detractors clash over inclusion and standards

Tony Vedda of the LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce Foundation said the timing matters because LGBT visibility faces growing challenges across Texas. He argued state and federal pressures now limit how cities show inclusion, even if resurfacing triggers the work. Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order told TxDOT to remove “political ideologies from our streets,” and it cited rainbow-style crosswalks. The order warned that noncompliance could threaten state and federal transportation funding, and it raised the possibility of suspended TxDOT agreements. Supporters of the removals stress uniform standards and funding risk, but detractors see a targeted rollback of pride symbols. Dallas still allowed Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to keep rainbow-painted front steps for three years, even though the steps went up in defiance of the order.

Dallas Removes Rainbow Crosswalks Following State Order on ‘Political Ideologies’

Photo by R K on Unsplash

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