After Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the removal of rainbow crosswalks across Texas, the City of Dallas is pushing back.
In October, Abbott ordered cities to remove rainbow crosswalks, citing safety concerns, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. However, Dallas City Manager Kim Tolbert filed a last-minute exemption request with the Texas Department of Transportation on November 6, one day before the deadline to comply, per KERA.
Tolbert asked the state to exempt 30 crosswalks from the requirement.
“The city’s decorative crosswalks are a form of government speech, expressing civic values and community identity through design in a manner that is consistent with the city’s authority to manage and maintain its streets,” Tolbert wrote in the letter.
Tolbert claimed the demand for removal infringed on the local authority and raised constitutional concerns. Under Abbott’s order, cities that keep their rainbow crosswalks could lose state and federal transportation funding and potentially have agreements with TxDOT suspended.
“It conditions continuing access to roadway funding on the suppression of lawful municipal expression,” Tolbert wrote.
She claimed crosswalk designs are not a public safety risk, but offer a “clear visual boundary” between cars and pedestrians, according to KERA. Tolbert also said that removing privately funded crosswalks would require the use of public funds, which the recent budget did not include.
The Dallas City Council approved 10 rainbow crosswalks in Oak Lawn in 2019, as part of a $1.4 million street improvement project, according to WOAI. They were projected to cost $128,000 and were at least partially funded by private donations. Former City Councilman Chris Luna and the GLBT Chamber of Commerce Foundation raised $70,000 in six weeks, with the goal of raising an additional $30,000 for ongoing maintenance.
The Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas painted its front steps rainbow in October, protesting Abbott’s order, as The Dallas Express reported. After TxDOT issued a compliance warning on October 8, according to WFAA, Tolbert consulted with the city attorney, and multiple city council members expressed opposition.
Rainbow sidewalks have drawn increasing scrutiny across America for their endorsement of the LGBT political movement.
In late summer, Florida banned “political, social or ideological” messaging on public streets, according to WUFT. Referring to a rainbow crosswalk in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would “not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”
After Abbott’s initial order, Houston briefly removed one crosswalk for construction before restoring it.
After removing it for construction, the City of Houston chose to bring back the rainbow crosswalk at Westheimer and Taft rather than keep it removed.
Why are taxpayers funding this?@GregAbbott_TX ? pic.twitter.com/8aJxJ3fC2u
— True Texas Project (@TrueTXProject) October 3, 2025
Houston ultimately complied with the order, beginning the removal process on October 20, as The Dallas Express previously reported. According to the Houston Chronicle, Galveston also removed its rainbow crosswalks.
The Dallas City Council approved nine privately funded “All Black Lives Matter” sidewalks in 2021, in response to racial unrest the previous year, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. They were initially pitched as similar to the rainbow crosswalks in Oak Lawn.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote governors in July, asking them to prioritize safety on the roadways, according to a press release. He specifically asked them to keep crosswalks free of distractions – “Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork.”