San Antonio recently unveiled new rainbow sidewalks in its Pride heritage district to replace the rainbow crosswalks that city workers removed in January, following anti-LGBTQ+ orders from the Trump administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). The sidewalks may just be the beginning of a longer city campaign to install LGBTQ+ artworks in the face of anti-queer government oppression.

Local residents had expressed disappointment towards the city’s first out lesbian Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and city councilmembers for allegedly not fighting harder to keep the city’s rainbow crosswalks. So, out LGBTQ+ San Antonio City Councilwoman Sukh Kaur reportedly spearheaded the rainbow sidewalk project with Jones’ help to keep the city’s Pride heritage district visibly queer.

Related

Democrats would probably get more votes if they abandoned trans people. But they haven’t.

The removal of San Antonio’s rainbow crosswalks — which were originally installed in 2018 with nearly $19,000 in privately raised donations from the help of the local nonprofit Pride San Antonio — was carried out by city workers under pressure from Trump and Gov. Abbott’s administrations.

In July 2025, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged governors to remove any political messages, artwork, and markings on intersections not directly related to pedestrian or driver safety. He disingenuously claimed that rainbow crosswalks threaten driver safety.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Then, last October 8, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order directing the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to remove “any and all political ideologies” from streets across the state. Both Trump and Abbott pledged to withhold government funding from any states and municipalities, respectively, that refused to remove their rainbow crosswalks.

San Antonio had originally sought an exemption from Abbott’s order by contacting TxDOT. However, TxDOT said the city didn’t include a signed, sealed document from a traffic engineer certifying the crosswalk as legally compliant. Even if the city had included such a document, TxDOT gave no exemptions to Abbott’s order.

James Poindexter, an executive with Pride San Antonio, then filed a lawsuit against the city in January to prevent the crosswalks’ removal, alleging that the city violated due process laws by not having its council vote on the removal or the new sidewalks’ installation, The Texas Tribune reported.

Poindexter said he filed the lawsuit to make his organization’s public stance well-known. He also said a city council vote on the new sidewalks could have strengthened protections to preserve them if a future administration ever tries to remove them.

At a rally last October, Mayor Jones said, “We know [the crosswalks issue] isn’t actually about public safety, which is why we have to be strategic,” adding, “We look forward to announcing [alternative] plans in the near future, so we can ensure our community is seen, heard, and uplifted.”

Kaur said the new sidewalks’ installation, which cost $170,000, was permitted to proceed without a council vote because the area’s cultural heritage district designation allows it. The sidewalks now extend one block north and south on North Main Avenue near Evergreen Street, where the crosswalks were. Unlike the crosswalks, the sidewalks also have chevrons acknowledging the transgender community.

“I completely understand those folks that really wanted us to do more, and I respect that,” Kaur said. “I hope that they’ll see that us taking ownership of the land, an area that we do control, like the sidewalks, demonstrates that we aren’t going silently.”

Kaur also said that the city wants to install “more murals, more artwork, other artifacts” to show off the district’s queer history and grow its support for the community, KSAT reported.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mike Daniel Guajardo (@michaeldaniel1434)

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.