‘We are a welcoming city’ Lexington unveils new rainbow crosswalk for Pride Month
Lexington’s annual Pride Festival, which typically begins in June, was pushed back to September due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But the city marked the beginning of Pride Month on Monday by unveiling a new, freshly repainted rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of North Limestone and Short Street in front of the Fayette Circuit and District courthouses.
Paid for through $30,000 in donations spearheaded by the Blue Grass Community Foundation and JustFundKY, a nonprofit LGBTQ fundraising group, the newly repainted rainbow crosswalk tells visitors year-round that Lexington celebrates diversity and is open and inclusive to all, said Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton at a press conference Monday unveiling the new striped crosswalk.
“We are a welcoming city, embracing our diversity,” Gorton said. “Our community strives to make sure we’ll all have opportunities that we deserve. Our city is focused on making sure all people — no matter your race, gender, age or who you love — feel safe.”
The original crosswalk was painted in 2017, prior to the city’s Pride Festival when then-Mayor Jim Gray, the first openly gay man to be elected mayor, was in office. But the first rainbow-themed crosswalk in Kentucky was not without controversy. The Federal Highway Administration told the city at one point to repaint it, saying it was a distraction and a safety hazard. Federal transportation officials weighed in on the crosswalk after an unknown city official asked them to look into it.
Federal highway officials eventually backed off the request to restore the crosswalk to a traditional all-white striping.
“There was push back,” Gray said, who is now the secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “It wasn’t just a bit of a challenge. It was a challenge.”
Rainbow-colored crosswalks have been added in several U.S. cities, including Seattle; Philadelphia; Atlanta; Tucson, Ariz.; and Long Beach, Calif.
Gray said his partner, Eric Orr, had seen those crosswalks in other cities and encouraged Gray to put one in Lexington.
Despite the dustup, it was the right thing to do, Gray said.
“It shows we are a welcoming and inclusive community,” Gray said. “To many of us, this is more than a place to cross the street; it’s a place in the center of our city that proudly says we all belong here.”
In 2019, North Limestone was slated to be repaved, which meant the crosswalk would have to be redone, Gorton said. This time, the city choose long, parallel stripes instead of thicker horizontal stripes.
The new design was installed on Sunday.
More than 30 individuals contributed in addition to grants from PNC Bank, the Fairness Campaign and Lexington Fairness. The Blue Grass Community Foundation formed the Rainbow Fund to help support the crosswalk and its maintenance. People interested in donating for future maintenance can visit https://bgcf.givingfuel.com/rainbow.
This story was originally published June 7, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
