Left-wing activists rallied Sunday in Miami Beach to protest the removal of the city’s rainbow-painted sidewalk, draping flags over the street and chanting, “Miami Beach, forever proud.”
State contractors began tearing up the crosswalk that afternoon, just days after the city lost its appeal to keep the design, according to the Associated Press. By Monday, the pavement had been replaced with standard asphalt. (RELATED: Transgender Democrat Drops Out Of Race After Trying To Fundraise Off Hating Charlie Kirk)
The Florida Department of Transportation ordered the removal in June, warning municipalities that marking public roadways “social, political, or ideological messages or imagery” could cost them state funding.
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 06: In an aerial view, the intersection where the Florida Department of Transportation removed the LGBTQ+ rainbow paver crosswalk and replaced it with black pavement on October 6, 2025, in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“All of a sudden these FDOT trucks showed up, an army of workers, heavy machinery. No notice to our city,” Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez said, according to NBC News.
“This represented decades of people who endured housing discrimination, expulsion from the military, workplace discrimination, the stigma of HIV and AIDS, the fight for marriage equality, all the hard-won battles that took the LGBTQ community from being marginalized to now being a visible, celebrated part of the community,” the commissioner continued.
FDOT worked into the night removing the rainbow crosswalk on 12th & Ocean Drive in South Beach
Before and after pic.twitter.com/FQZyG3ENQo
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) October 6, 2025
Fernandez said workers collected the removed paving stones for possible reuse in the future.
The rainbow crosswalk, designed by Savino & Miller Design Studio and installed in 2018, featured terrazzo pavers in a colorful Art Deco pattern, according to the outlet.