This mindset always frustrates me.

Of course it was performative, all public art is performative. This is no different than tv promoting the "traditional american family", or statues "honoring the troops", or memorials, or any other art promoting propagandized values.

But life imitates art. Even if the intent was insincere pandering, it still has an effect on how people perceive their society. We should want our propaganda to reflect our values. We should want statues of MLK and Harvey Milk instead of Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis. We should want rainbow streets and pride flags in public spaces. We should want their agenda to match our values. We should want the next generation growing up in a society that shows its support for marginalized people, instead of nationalism.

Sometimes the point of a protest is to put yourself in a position to get knocked down.

Daniella Mestyanek Young, aka Knitting Cult Lady observes authoritarian movemens hate color and seek to deface all public art and expression that doesn't specifically belong to or represent the movement.

I've always seen the Thin Blue Line flag as the diametric opposite of the Pride flag.

In my country people, especially teenage boys, try to avoid walking over the rainbow crossings. Since they don’t want to be seen as gay, because other boys will call them gay if they walk on the rainbow. My country is the Netherlands btw.

Yes they might be pandering but they also reveal how people in society still have ingrained bigoted views. You can only really tackle these shortcomings in society if they reveal themselves.

Did they actually pour colored concrete and not just paint? Awesome if so, makes them work for their performative hatred at least when removing.

Closeted cowards.

For me the LGBTQ colours displayed by the city are meaningful. It feels safer gay kissing in a square painted with rainbows, sitting on pink benches. It made it easier to ease into my own self. It’s like a big sign saying "IT’S OK".

Is this a state roadway? If not, crazy that the state has the authority to do this.

Both can be true. The installation can be a bit naff, but the choice to remove it is an act of deliberate hatred.

They are just like rainbow capitalism. They don't improve the rights of anyone but they are an indicator of the acceptance.

pandering was always pandering,

But pandering is a great canary

This is how I find out that my city has/had a pridewalk?!

They did this to Houston, but they did an extremely half-assed job. It was one thin layer of additional asphalt covering over the whole intersection. But you can still see the pride crosswalk peeking out from underneath at the edges.

I'm still very upset.

Especially now that the sidewalks have been defaced with hate messages, which were then blacked out with spray paint. Is there a way to get the spray paint off the concrete and go back to chalk?

They have us fighting over crosswalks while our house burns down.

E: that’s not cool my comment was pulled for “minimizing queer struggles”. I don’t know how anyone got that out of what I said. I specifically want to make the point that there’s a shitload of bad stuff happening, that bad stuff includes LGBTQ people as victims, but the fact that news coversge goes to arguing over crosswalks instead of the dumpsterfire hppening is ridiculous. We’re in this shitshow together. A crosswalk removed is the symptom, not the actual problem.

Threatened by some colors - truly pathetic