Milwaukee’s historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood has unveiled a new Pride-themed intersection. The freshly painted rainbow crosswalks in Walker’s Point serve as a powerful symbol of acceptance in the face of the GOP’s relentless campaign to eliminate LGBTQ+ street art across the country.

“For some people this is just a rainbow, for some people this is just a crosswalk,” Michail Takach, the chair of the Wisconsin LGBTQ+ History Project, which spearheaded the initiative, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But the importance of this cannot be overstated right now.”

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He emphasized how “very, very important” visibility symbols are right now.

“Many of the business owners in Walker’s Point said this is more than just about the LGBTQ community,” he said. “This is about telling people everyone is safe here, everyone belongs here and everyone is welcome here.”

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Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson echoed similar sentiments during the unveiling ceremony on October 6.

“For more than 80 years, the Walker’s Point neighborhood has been a safe haven for Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ community,” Johnson said. “Now this place is where people could come as they find acceptance, as they find belonging, and where they really find joy in our city.”

“By bringing the rainbows home, we’re honoring the past while embracing a future where everyone, and I mean that when I say every single person, every body every one no matter who they are and no matter who they love feels seen feels valued and feels safe right here in this neighborhood and right here in our city.”

The crosswalk, he said, is a “visible reminder” that diversity is strength.

Takach launched the crosswalk initiative after volunteering the Wisconsin LGBTQ+ History Project to lead the restoration of a different rainbow crosswalk. Another organization took on that effort, but Takach said he had already rallied a “ground swell” of support, so he decided to establish a new Pride intersection.

The Walker’s Point rainbow intersection was funded completely with private donations and established through the city’s Paint the Pavement program.

The state of Florida has become the epicenter of the crosswalk crackdown. The administration of anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Ron DeSantis has heeded warnings from federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has falsely claimed Pride art is distracting to drivers.

Duffy wrote in a July 1 letter to the nation’s governors that all non-freeway intersections and crosswalks must be kept “free from distractions.” In a subsequent X post, Duffy said that “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.”

In response, DeSantis signed a law directing the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) “to ensure compliance with FDOT’s uniform system for traffic control devices,” a department spokesperson told Fox 13 in a statement. The law effectively bans all pavement art and murals like rainbow crosswalks, regardless of their political message.

The DeSantis administration has been aggressive about ensuring the crosswalks are erased, despite protests and resistance from local leaders.

While state and federal officials have said that street art distracts drivers, data from the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2022 Asphalt Art Safety Study contradicts that claim.

The study found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists drop 50% at painted intersections. It also reported a 25% decrease in conflicts between drivers and pedestrians, a 27% increase in drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians, and a 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing when the walk signal was not lit at intersections involving public art. The data also revealed that injuries resulting from crashes drop 37% in painted intersections.  

The establishment of the Walker’s Point crosswalk, then, seems to serve as a direct rebuttal to Florida’s hate campaign, especially considering the state has long been a testing ground for anti-LGBTQ+ policies, such as the Don’t Say Gay law, which inspired copycat legislation across the country.

The Milwaukee intersection is dedicated to Jim Dorn, the founder of the now-shuttered LGBTQ+ bar, Your Place, which opened in 1965 and was the city’s first gay bar owned and run by a gay couple.

“This was a time when bartenders could lose their licenses for serving known homosexuals,” Takach told the Journal Sentinel. “To open a place that was specifically for gay people, by gay people, was pretty shocking.” He said Dorn is the reason Walker’s Point is the LGBTQ+ safe space it is today.

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