In an Orlando news conference Tuesday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis defended recent arrests at the Pulse crosswalk and insinuated the rainbow paint was an incentive for drivers who “disagree with the message” to drive recklessly.
During the conference, which was focused on Florida’s efforts toward fighting fentanyl use, DeSantis was asked about three protesters who were arrested over the weekend for using chalk to color in the memorial crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub mass shooting site. The formerly rainbow-painted crosswalk — which has been in place since 2017 and that the state paid to repaint as recent as last year — was removed by the Florida Department of Transportation 13 days ago.
The crosswalk has remained a site of controversy as protesters, state lawmakers and local officials have been gathering to re-color in the crosswalk with chalk. A total of four people have been arrested for using chalk on the crosswalk since Saturday.
“This is kind of an instructive civics lesson here,” he said. “You do not have a right to take somebody else’s property for your messaging purposes.”
The former nightclub site and crosswalk served as the city’s only interim memorial for the 49 victims of the Pulse shooting.
A fact not lost on DeSantis, who said Tuesday he would like to see and has approved funds for a proper Pulse memorial, but that those funds are “not for some crosswalk.”
“It’s too much to have this,” he said.
DeSantis continued by saying that the rainbow-painted crosswalk, which has been in place for eight years, has the potential to create safety hazards.
“One, people just seeing it, but then you have some people who may disagree with the message and then they’re incentivized to try to peel out or something.”
A day after the state’s quiet rainbow removal, DeSantis took to social media to call the painted strip of road a “political purpose.”
The first person to be arrested at the site was taken into custody after he chalked the crosswalk using the bottom of his shoes Friday. He was charged with interference with a traffic control device, but a judge found “no probable cause” for his arrest shortly after.
Florida has recently launched efforts to remove painted — rainbow and otherwise — crosswalks across the state in cities such as St. Petersburg, Key West, Delray Beach and more. The moves come amid Trump administration-fueled efforts to erase sites of representation and what it deems to be political ideologies.
FDOT says its change in safety policy for Florida roadways and crosswalks occurred “with input from representatives of state and local governments,” and in order to ensure Florida’s roadways “are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests.”
The agency also pointed out that the state recently approved nearly $400,000 in state funding to help support the construction of a permanent memorial outside Pulse. The memorial is expected to, in part, include a rainbow glass prism plaza.
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This article appears in Sept. 3-9, 2025.