Houston Police arrested protesters as the demonstrators tried to stop road crews from paving over rainbow crosswalks in the city’s Montrose neighborhood.

“We know we have some of the worst air quality, we have people disappearing in the bayous, we have urgent matters that need to be attended to, and we are wasting time on a distraction and a vilification of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans people,” said Andy Escobar, one of the protestors.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered cities to remove street art like Pride crosswalks earlier this month, saying that they represent “political ideologies.” That is not true; the Pride flag represents LGBTQ+ people, a class of people made up of individuals from across the political spectrum. The announcement came after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked state governors to remove “political messages” from roadways.

“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy posted to social media to drive home that the main target of his letter was LGBTQ+ people.

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Crews showed up late on Sunday to remove the crosswalks at Westheimer and Taft in Houston, starting work at 2:30 a.m. local time. Protestors gathered as the workers began and put barriers in place to keep the protestors out of the street. Several protestors crossed the barrier and stood on the crosswalk to stop its removal, and Houston Police arrested them by 4 a.m. local time.

These specific rainbow crosswalks carry special meaning, as protestors explained that they were installed as a memorial for a person who died at the intersection in a hit-and-run several years ago.

“This is more than just the LGBT community,” protestor Ethan Hale told KHOU 11.

Protestors spent the night drawing on the sidewalk in chalk and standing vigil as workers removed the crosswalk and applied a new coat of asphalt.

“It really meant something to me, it acknowledged the Montrose neighborhood, and for them to erase it makes me so sad,” protestor Katherine Regis, who is trans, told the Houston Chronicle. “This isn’t just about a crosswalk, it really meant something.”

“It’s important for leadership to know that this is not the first time this has happened to [the LGBTQ+ community],” said Kevin Strickland, whose traffic safety organization Walk and Roll Houston organized the protest. “It’s not going to work. Even if the paint’s removed, we’re still going to be seen, we’re still going to be heard.” 

The intersection was reopened by 8:30 a.m. local time.

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