Pedestrian crossings are everywhere, making them a perfect opportunity for LGBTQI activists to raise public awareness.
Rainbow crosswalks first emerged in West Hollywood during the 2012 Pride Month celebrations. In May 2012, Tel Aviv city hall painted a crosswalk in rainbow colors to headline the Pride Parade’s main concert.
These photos, reminiscent of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover, were posted on Facebook, but the crosswalk was repainted white a few hours later.
Atlanta, USA
On the anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, which took 49 LGBTI lives, Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed, announced that the city will make rainbow crosswalks in midtown permanent. This is the fruit of a campaign on Care2 started by trans woman and LGBTI advocate Sarah Rose, whose petition was signed by 22,000 people.
United Nations, New York
For the 2016 General Assembly, the UN Free and Equal campaign and the US government collaborated to create this amazing rainbow crossing in front of the UN building. The fact that UN delegates from all countries, including all the countries that still criminalise same-sex conduct, had to cross this rainbow to access the UN was compelling.
Charles Radcliffe from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that this initiative served to “celebrate diversity and remind UN delegates that the fight goes on.” This action is obviously situated in a much wider strategy, involving lobbying within the UN on the establishment of an independent expert on LGBT issues at the Human Rights Council, as well as public campaigning, with the ongoing Free and Equal campaign, which also seizes the opportunity of every IDAHOT to take action, mainly by launching international videos.
Australia
The government of Sydney created a temporary rainbow crossing as part of the 35th Mardi Gras celebrations, which became iconic for the LGBT community. When the city took the decision to have it removed for security reasons, people began to take matters into their own hands, by creating their own rainbow crossings out of chalk, with parents and children from several local schools chalking a rainbow in the public square at Summer Hill, as part of the DIY Rainbow Crossing movement.
Last but not least, be aware of other forms of “crossings”. Our favorite is this tunnel:
Pedestrian walkway decorated with a rainbow.
