Texas Tried To Erase Pride Crosswalks — San Antonio Said Bet

Unwilling to be forced into erasing a marker of the city’s LGBTQIA+ community, leaders in San Antonio have devised a way to work around Texas’s crackdown on the marginalized group’s representation. 

Crosswalks within San Antonio’s Pride Cultural District have displayed rainbow flags since 2018. The colorful symbol has meaningfully represented the diversity and vibrancy of the LGBTQIA+ community since 1978, thanks to its creator, Gilbert Baker. Last October, San Antonio and other Texas cities received a directive from Governor Greg Abbott to remove any political messaging or ideology from roads. The threatened consequence for noncompliance was the loss of millions in funding for local streets that Texans use every day and pay for with their tax dollars. Additionally, the Department of Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, said months earlier, in a July 2025 X post, that “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”

To meet requirements and maintain LGBTQIA+ representation in San Antonio’s Pride Cultural District, community leaders strategically removed the rainbow Pride flag from crosswalks and placed it on sidewalks. A strategic change with major impact, the colorful sidewalks highlight certain local community members’ unwillingness to have LGBTQIA+ representation erased or toned down.

U.S. Cities Where LGBTQIA+ Communities Continue To Thrive

San Antonio isn’t the only United States-based city making a conscious effort to be a place where the LGBTQIA+ community can feel represented and live their lives fully and authentically. Even in the face of waning LGBTQIA+ rights nationwide amid the current administration, many communities and leaders across the country are doing what they can. 

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago are major cities with significant LGBTQIA+ communities. They, along with many other U.S. cities that host Pride events (in June and at other times of the year), bring together community and culture under the tenets of freedom, inclusivity, safety, celebration, and remembrance. Even in the face of federal and local crackdowns, LGBTQIA+ events, gathering spots, and even designated sidewalks all reflect the ongoing story of a community that refuses to be invisible.

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