Phoenix permanently paints road crossings with Pride colours
Four people sought in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix has permanently painted two zebra crossings with Pride colours, embracing the city’s LGBT+ community.
The city’s council unanimously voted to give two crossings a rainbow makeover, reports The Arizona Republic.
The two crossings are in Seventh and Glenrosa avenues, and Central Avenue at Portland Street.
Three local LGBT+ organisations — Phoenix Pride Community Foundation, Aunt Rita’s Foundation, and one-n-ten – asked the council to install the Pride-themed crosswalks in a permanent demonstration of support for the Arizona capital’s queer community.
“The time is right to move this proposal forward to bring rainbow crosswalks … so that our city can continue to embrace and thrive in our diversity and our inclusion and in welcoming all people who wish to visit, live in, work in, build a business in or simply enjoy the city of Phoenix,” Phoenix Pride Executive Director Michael Fornelli said in April, according to The Arizona Republic.
The LGBT+ organisations paid for crossings to be painted over, and will also fund the long-term maintenance.
Thank you to the @CityofPhoenixAZ City of Phoenix, @PhoenixPrideAZ and @1n10 for installing rainbow crosswalks in Phoenix. They are a very welcome addition to the city! pic.twitter.com/05weFGx5fM
— LGBTQ Caucus AZDems (@azlgbtdems) July 9, 2018
Other cities in the US have installed rainbow-coloured crossings, including San Antonio, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Cities across the world, too, have also painted their crossings with the Pride colours in a show of support for LGBT+ people.
Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo recently announced rainbow crossings in the French capital – vandalised twice in one week with homophobic graffiti – would be made permanent.
The crosswalk is here! LIVE in Phoenix, AZ. I can’t believe it and am so excited and proud to be a lesbian right now. #lgbtq #rainbowcrosswalk #equality pic.twitter.com/S3IBOocFCd
— Noel Guevara (@noelguevara) July 9, 2018
The Pride-themed crossings were installed for Paris Pride, also known as Marche des Fiertés, at the end of June.
However, the rainbow additions were targeted by vandals twice in one week – on June 25 and June 28 – who covered them with paint and scrawled homophobic messages, including “LGBT get out of France” and “LGBT dictatorship.”
The vandalism was promptly cleaned up and widely condemned, including by mayor Hidalgo.
Now, Hidalgo has said the Pride-painted crossings will be made a permanent feature of the French capital.
“Paris is a safe haven that embraces the republican values of freedom, equality and fraternity,” she wrote on Twitter.
“For they fall forever in its walls, crosswalks rainbow sky created for #MarcheFesFiertés will be permanent!”
