They Came by Night: The Attack on Memory

It is August 21, 2025, three o'clock in the morning. While Orlando sleeps, the vehicles of the Florida Department of Transportation roll in. Their mission: the erasure of a rainbow. Not just any rainbow - but that crosswalk on Orange Avenue that since 2017 has commemorated the 49 people who died in the Pulse nightclub during what was then the deadliest massacre in modern US history. What is taking place here under the guise of traffic safety is nothing less than a frontal assault on the collective memory of a traumatized community.

On June 12, 2016, during a Latin Night, Omar Mateen entered the LGBTQ-friendly Pulse and carried out a bloodbath. With two semi-automatic weapons he killed 49 people, injured 53 more and held many for hours in a state of terror. It was and remains the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in the history of the United States. The rainbow crosswalk, which the state of Florida itself installed in 2017 in close coordination with all safety standards, became a sacred place - a place where mourners laid flowers, where survivors wept, where an entire city swore: We will not forget.

But it was precisely this promise that was now to be painted over with black and white paint. The order came from the very top: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had in July instructed all governors to remove so-called "distractions" from the streets as part of his "SAFE ROADS Initiative." "Taxpayers expect their dollars to finance safe roads, not rainbow crosswalks," he tweeted. Ron DeSantis, Florida's governor, executed this order with frightening precision: "We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes."

The paradox of the nocturnal "safety measure"

The absurdity of this argument exposes itself: a crosswalk that demonstrably increased safety and visibility for the countless visitors to the memorial is declared a danger. A memorial site for victims of hate violence is degraded to a political statement. And a measure supposedly serving traffic safety is carried out under the cover of darkness - without announcement, without discussion, without a single piece of evidence for an actual danger.

"They did this in the middle of the night because they were afraid of resistance, because they know that what they did was wrong," openly gay Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith put it. The cowardice of the operation speaks volumes: those who act in secret know the moral reprehensibility of their actions.

Orlando's Mayor Buddy Dyer found in his statement words that in their controlled anger captured the full dimension of this betrayal: "This callous action, hastily removing part of a memorial - without any safety-related data or discussion - is a cruel political act." He reminded that the crosswalk had been installed by the state itself, that it met all safety standards, that it was not just a traffic element but "a visible reminder of Orlando's commitment to honor the 49 lost lives."

The rainbow returns

But then something remarkable happened. As the news of the nocturnal overpainting spread, residents flocked to Orange Avenue. With rainbow flags in their hands and chalk in their pockets, they began, color by color, field by field, to paint the rainbow back. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet - each stroke an act of resistance, each color a middle finger to the powers that believed memory could be erased with road paint.

An afternoon rain washed away the chalk again, but the message was unmistakable: you can paint over a crosswalk, but you cannot break the soul of a community. You can ban colors, but you cannot kill love. You can come at night like thieves, but in the day the resistance becomes visible. This nocturnal action is part of a larger pattern. The Florida Department of Transportation had in recent months instructed cities such as Delray Beach, Key West and St. Petersburg to remove their rainbow crosswalks - otherwise transportation funds would be cut. St. Petersburg asked for an exemption for five installations, including a Black Lives Matter mural. The answer came in the form of black and white paint.

What is happening here is more than traffic policy. It is an attempt to push the LGBTQ+ community out of public space, to negate their visibility, to criminalize their grief. "This is a totally ridiculous and absurd pretext for something that is clearly an attempt to erase LGBTQ identities and simply be anti-queer," said Senator Smith. But history teaches us: oppression begets resistance. And Senator Smith already promises: "There will be a rainbow mural nearby that will be bigger, queerer and more colorful than they ever imagined." The 49 victims of the Pulse massacre - their names remain. Their stories remain. And somewhere, between the freshly painted white stripes on Orange Avenue, remain also the traces of chalk that the rain could not completely wash away. They remind us: some things cannot be painted over. Some colors burn too brightly for darkness to swallow them. And some communities are too strong for nocturnal raids to break them. "Even though this crosswalk has now been removed," Mayor Dyer concludes, "our community's commitment to honor the 49 can never be erased."

Opinions:

At this point it is nothing but pettiness. You cannot erase history and you cannot erase people, but he keeps trying - just like he is trying to erase his past with Epstein. We are all too smart for that.

(Soorya - against Trump)

It is not about "erasing LGBTQ identities." It is about not constantly being drenched with their philosophy. Make Pride Month a day and not a month. Stop with the indulgences.

(Fiona - pro measure)

The crosswalk was there for years, but suddenly now it is a distraction! Incredible, these days this administration is bothered by everything!

(Tobe - against Trump)

It is just a road. Not a flag.

(Carla - pro measure)

So wrong. America needs to wake up. This man, Trump, is strangling us.

(Garry - against Trump)

Almost half of America voted for this crazy guy, so the rest of us who did not vote for him are now along for this ridiculous ride called Trump.

(Rebecca Craig - against Trump)

Yes, inch by inch our freedoms are being taken away - until one day they are simply gone.

(Tammie - against Trump)

Why paint over a meaningful artistic memorial? Who did it hurt? Trump's lack of compassion is truly disheartening. I do not understand it.

(Linda - against Trump)

They should have just left the memorial alone! It had meaning for this community, and it was disrespectful to just eliminate it. Everything he calls "woke" he wants to destroy.

(Thomas Jennings - against Trump)

"We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes." How is this supposed to be political? The only ones making everything political and divisive are the regressives.

(Judy - against Trump)

When politics begins to target specific groups negatively, you really have to question who is running your country. I am not American, but it is embarrassing to see such hatred in any country in 2025. We are literally going backwards.

(Rebecca - against Trump)

That was a terrible act - not only toward the people who lost their lives, but also toward the community that still mourns 49 souls. How could a rainbow crosswalk hurt anyone? Disgusting.

(Kimberly - against Trump)

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