The city of Chicago has provoked controversy this week after paving over a rainbow crosswalk immediately after Pride month ended.
A Twitter user going by the handle @anxious_e was the first person to point out the faux pas, sharing a side-by-side post of the crosswalk in question, which is situated outside City Hall on North LaSalle Street.
The image shared online shows that the rainbow-colored zebra-crossing has been hastily painted white and black again just hours after June ended.
The outraged Twitter user wrote in a tweet made on July 2 that: "Chicago unveiled a new rainbow crosswalk on June 3rd and then tarred over it on June 30th in the middle of the night lmao. [sic]"
Their tweet clearly resonated with other Twitter users as it has now racked up over 27,000 retweets, and 226,000 likes at the time of writing.
For example, one Twitter user accused Chicago city officials of performative allyship, writing in a tweet: "It’s almost like they’re saying 'ok you gays, this pride month nonsense is over, that’s the only reason we’re even doing this.'"
Another person pointed out that the city of Atlanta already has a permanent pride crosswalk in place at a busy civic intersection, writing: "ATL has had rainbow crosswalks for over 5 years now…
"Them removing the rainbow crosswalk has nothing to do with safety let’s be real."
While another added: "Is anybody realizing that they spent money, effort, and resources, to do this? Instead of letting them fade away like every other crosswalk and street line in a city? Like... this was a T A S K. [sic]"
Another wrote: "Man, they weren't kidding when they said it was '*for* pride month.' Like... Why not just leave it? It literally cost money to pave it over."
Another Twitter user chimed in, writing: "Most attention I've seen being done to a Chicago street in a while! My old neighborhood had gravel filled in for years!"
Finally, someone else commented: "It's sort of like they went out of their way to make a useless, token gesture, then undid it to show they didn't really care, and it all cost a needless amount of money."
On the other hand, others pointed out that there might be a good reason why the crosswalk was recolored.
For instance, this person commented: "Please keep in mind that a rainbow is no crosswalk and people from anywhere else, not knowing that this particular rainbow is supposed to be a crosswalk, will not stop for a rainbow. This becoming a safety and legal issue sooner or later."
A second person then commented that the repaving wasn't as hasty as many believed it to be, pointing out: "There wasn't any pink on the original flag.
"That pink is spray paint just to mark the indication border in order to make it compliant with the marking regulations (without the markings the crossing isn't identifiable as a crossing without prior knowledge)."
Finally, this person commented: "Sometimes road construction makes up jobs every now and again to retain/validate their annual funding.
"Saw one road being 'worked on' three times last summer, and it was just paved the previous fall. This in a town full of crumbling back roads, mind u. [sic]"
