On June 12, 2016, the nation awoke to news of one of the worst mass shootings in American history. A gunman had burst into Orlando, Florida’s Pulse nightclub and opened fire, killing 49 and wounding 53. There was an outpouring of sympathy and vows that this crime would not be forgotten.
We’re now coming up to a decade since the massacre, and, it seems the Trump administration is doing everything they possibly can to pretend it didn’t happen. In Orlando, the victims were commemorated in low-key and tasteful fashion with a rainbow-painted crosswalk that sat directly outside Pulse.
Or, at least, they were. Last night, under the cover of darkness, state officials sneaked into town and painted over the memorial. Remarkably, this order appears to have originated directly from the Trump administration, via Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. His SAFE ROADS Initiative claims to want to eliminate “distractions” on roads, but he made the actual reason known in a post last month, saying, “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.
Local residents are horrified that a much-loved tribute to the victims has been destroyed with no consultation or warning. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has said the community is “devastated”:
We are devastated to learn that overnight the state painted over the Pulse Memorial crosswalk on Orange Avenue. But we know that while this crosswalk has been removed, Orlando's commitment to honoring the 49 can never be erased. pic.twitter.com/4LdXvLUiom
— Mayor Buddy Dyer (@orlandomayor) August 21, 2025
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis is crowing over the erasure of the memorial, saying it was “commandeering” a state road for “political purposes”. This is pretty damn evil stuff, even for DeSantis.
Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman was similarly disgusted, pointing out that the crosswalk was authorized by Republicans:
“The rainbow crosswalk at Pulse was a tribute, not a political statement — and a tribute authorized by a Republican administration, at that. It was specifically designed to enhance pedestrian safety for people paying their respects.”
Orlando fights back
It’s worth remembering that the Pulse massacre shooter was inspired by ISIS and is considered a terrorist attack. We’re betting if the victims were straight people killed by a Muslim gunman, DeSantis would be frothing at the mouth at the notion of their memorial being erased. But because they’re gay, it’s open season.
But there’s a silver lining to this cloud. Mere hours after the state destroyed the monument, Orlando residents unofficially restored it with chalk, saying that nobody can erase the memory of the fallen:
Orlando recolors the Pulse Memorial Sidewalk Rainbow after DeSantis paved over it. We are Orlando Strong and no one can ever erase the LGBTQIA+ Community
—pic.twitter.com/NLS7pOz1xQ
Jeremy Rodriguez
Maybe, just maybe, coming after a memorial to the second-worst shooting in American history wasn’t the smartest move. It just looks plain evil and heartless, with little justification as to why you would do this other than hate. But then, maybe the evil is the point. After all, if they can get away with this, what else can they do?
