Police in Dallas, Texas, arrested 25-year-old Joseph Whiteside at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning for using spray paint and chalk to restore one of the city’s recently erased rainbow crosswalks. Police charged him with a misdemeanor, but arrested him due to unrelated, outstanding misdemeanor warrants, The Dallas Voice reported. The publication hailed Whiteside as a “hero.”

Whiteside’s arrest coincides with the release of a statement by the Cedar Springs Merchant Association (CSMA) – a collection of LGBTQ+-affiliated businesses on the strip – pledging to develop a campaign of “bold, permanent, and undeniable visibility” in the city’s LGBTQ+ strip.

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Dallas erased its rainbow crosswalks. One “hero” fought back with paint & chalk.

Whiteside outlined a rainbow in spray paint and had intended to fill it in with chalk, KDFW reported. Police arrested him for outstanding warrants from the nearby suburb of Farmers Branch, related to speeding and a subsequent failure to appear in court.

Work crews removed the rainbow crosswalks from Dallas’ Cedar Springs LGBTQ+ strip on Monday following orders from the current presidential administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). The multicolored crosswalks will be replaced by standard white crosswalk stripes by April 28, though the city has pledged to hold meetings to discuss how the strip can still express its historic, queer cultural identity.

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In a statement published by The Dallas Voice, the CSMA condemned the crosswalks’ removal as an act of “deliberate erasure” meant to cover up the area’s history as the city’s queer center.

“For more than five decades, the Cedar Springs Road corridor has been more than a business district. It is a living monument, a sanctuary and the beating heart of the LGBTQ+ community of Dallas,” the statement said.

“The rainbow crosswalks installed along the intersections of Cedar Springs were not merely decorative concrete. They were our welcome mat, our public vow and a daily, empowering symbol to every person who crossed them that here, you are safe; you are celebrated, and you are home.”

The CSMA promised to respond to the erasure by “embarking on a collective campaign of bold, permanent, and undeniable visibility” by “investing in legacy projects — art installations, enhanced lighting, permanent rainbow structures — that will ensure that rainbows fly eternally over this street, in forms that cannot be so easily stripped away.”

The association also told community members and allies to use their presence and expression within the Cedar Springs strip to defy the government’s attempt at erasure.

The North Texas LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce began fundraising privately for the rainbow crosswalks in 2019 so they could be installed without using taxpayer funds. By 2020, the group paid the city $128,250 to install the crosswalks and then raised another $45,000 to have them repainted in the summer of 2025, the chamber of commerce CEO and President Tony Vedda told KERA.

However, last July, 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.

Then, last October 8, Gov. 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.

Dallas originally sought an exemption from Abbott’s order by contacting TxDOT. Over 150 demonstrators protested the removal of the crosswalks last October at the Legacy of Love Monument at the end of Cedar Springs’ LGBTQ+ strip.

However, TxDOT denied the exemption on January 15. As a result, rainbow crosswalks, Black Lives Matter crosswalks, and other decorative designs in 30 spots citywide are slated for removal in accordance with Trump’s and Abbott’s orders.

In October, in response to the removal of a rainbow crosswalk in front of an LGBTQ+ affirming church near the Cedar Springs strip, church leaders painted the church’s front steps in bright rainbow colors.

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