A rainbow crosswalk and a street mural declaring “Black Artists Matter” in Austin, Texas, are in danger of being removed after the state's governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texan transportation department to enforce a directive from President Donald Trump to remove political and artistic road murals. Critics say the governor and the president are using roadway safety regulations to target art expressing support for LGBTQ+ and anti-racism causes as the Trump administration continues its suppression of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In July, US transportation secretary Sean P. Duffy called on all state governors to participate in “a new nationwide roadway safety initiative” that largely focuses on improving roads by making sure streets and intersections are being “kept free from distractions”. On 8 October, Abbott directed the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to make sure cities and counties across Texas “remove any and all political ideologies” from the streets.
"Texans expect their taxpayer dollars to be used wisely, not advance political agendas on Texas roadways," Abbott said in a statement.
The governor threatened to suspend TxDOT agreements and withhold state and federal funding from any city that refuses to comply. Texas is home to some of the fastest-growing areas of the country, and cities like Austin have struggled to accommodate growth that has outpaced infrastructure development. Austin’s transport department alone stands to lose more than $175m in state and federal grant funding.
A spokesperson for the City of Austin confirmed to The Art Newspaper on 10 October the city is aware of the governor’s directive and planned to comply. In a message posed on 11 October to a public online message board for Austin City Council members, mayor Kirk Watson said the city had identified about 16 locations that could be applicable to Abbott's directive. The mayor has proposed a plan in which similar displays are instead put in place on city-owned property that would not be in violation of any state or federal requirements.
“With all the needs we have in this state, it's disappointing and a waste of time to be talking about this,” Watson wrote. “Austin will comply with state law and we'll demonstrate our love for all Austinites in other ways. We have a lot of pride. We'll live it and we'll show it.”
Street art that could be subject to removal includes the phrase "Black Artists Matter" painted on East 11th Street, a rainbow crosswalk on 4th Street and the "Texas" painted in the University of Texas’s distinctive burnt orange on Guadalupe Street near campus, according to the city. It is unclear if Austin’s Artbox programme, which commissions local artists to paint traffic signal boxes across the city, will fall under the directive, the spokesperson said last week.
Austin’s 4th Street is home to a cluster of gay bars including Oilcan Harry’s, the city’s oldest LGBTQ+ entertainment venue founded more than 30 years ago. The rainbow crosswalk was painted in 2021 to mark National Coming Out Day. With 5.9% of local residents estimated to identify as LGBTQ+ according to a 2021 study, Austin has the country's third-highest share of queer residents, trailing only San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.
“While other cities across Texas are standing up to the governor’s discriminatory orders, Austin’s compliance—and the quiet removal of the rainbow crosswalks—sends a chilling message: our visibility, our progress, and our community are not being protected,” a spokesperson for the Austin Pride Foundation, a non-profit that organises Austin’s annual Pride celebrations, said in a statement.
The rainbow crosswalks are not just paint on the street, the foundation stressed. Local advocates worked for more than eight years to have them installed. “Their removal is not just disappointing,” the spokesperson added. “It is erasure.”
The “Black Artists Matter” mural is located on Austin’s East Side, historically home to the city’s vibrant Black community. The mural was painted in June 2020 by local Black artists as part of a collaboration between the Austin Justice Coalition and Capitol View Arts, a non-profit serving local artists, often in East Austin.
Rainbow crosswalks across Texas are in danger, including one in Houston’s Montrose neighbourhood, a hub for the city’s LGBTQ+ community dating back to the 1960s. Montrose is also home to many of Houston’s art museums and galleries, like the Menil Collection and the nearby Rothko Chapel. Activists online noted Abbott’s directive came just days after the far-right Instagram account Libs of Tiktok tagged the governor in a social media post highlighting that Houston’s crosswalk was being repainted to keep its rainbow colours vibrant. Some Dallas residents have pushed back on the state mandate, arguing the rainbow crosswalk in Oak Lawn, the city’s historically LGBTQ+ neighbourhood, was paid for with private donations. San Antonio officials say they will likely seek an exemption.
Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, already called on that state's cities to remove street murals. Earlier last week, Miami Beach’s famous rainbow crosswalk was removed after local officials hoping to preserve it lost an appeal.
