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Amid a Wave of Mass Shootings, Florida Cracks Down on Chalk

7 52
01.09.2025

Orlando activists use chalk to color in a crosswalk near the Pulse nightclub after the DeSantis administration removed a rainbow memorial.Ronaldo Silva/NurPhoto/AP

As the nation reels from last week’s horrific school shooting in Minnesota, authorities in Florida seem to be doing everything in their power to re-traumatize a community victimized by a different mass attack. That now includes arresting one protester, apparently for leaving temporary chalk footprints in a crosswalk that has become a flashpoint in Republican efforts to expunge pro-LGBTQ messaging from the public square.

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Transportation removed rainbow markings from a crosswalk in Orlando. There are rainbow-colored crosswalks across the country showing communities’ commitment to equality, but this one had special significance—it was painted as a memorial to the 2016 massacre at the nearby Pulse nightclub, an LGBTQ bar where 49 people were slaughtered by a gunman who expressed support for ISIS. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in US........

© Mother Jones