Crosswalk near Ohio State campus vandalized – Photo: FeistyGoal5426, via Reddit.
A rainbow crosswalk in Columbus, Ohio — part of a federal road safety study — was defaced when an unknown vandal poured a black tar-like substance across its brightly colored panels.
The incident comes as rainbow crosswalks nationwide face political pushback, with Republican leaders including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis portraying them as dangerous distractions on the road.
City officials learned of the vandalism on August 25 after a Reddit post and calls to 311 alerted them to the damage. The crosswalk, at Lane and Waldeck Avenues near Ohio State University, had each of its colored panels smeared with the black substance.
Unlike most rainbow crosswalks created to honor the LGBTQ community, the Columbus crosswalk is part of a Federal Highway Administration study testing whether nontraditional markings affect pedestrian safety, said Randy Borntrager, deputy director of the city’s Department of Public Service.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the rainbow crosswalk is one of five painted for the federal study, which launched last September under the Biden administration and remains ongoing.
Other test sites include rainbow stripes at West Third and Hunter Avenues, a brick-pattern crosswalk at Indianola Avenue and East Tompkins Street, and new linear white markings at the intersection of Dennison and Wilber Avenues.
Raleigh, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C. are also participating in the study. Borntrager said Columbus has received positive feedback from residents about its crosswalks.
“We never like to see anything we are doing for safety being defaced,” Borntrager said.
The future of the crosswalk designs depends on whether the study shows they do not contribute to accidents.
The city is determining whether graffiti-removal tools can restore the crosswalk; if not, it will be repainted so the study can continue.
Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged governors to eliminate political messages, artwork, and other non-traditional markings at intersections, arguing they are unrelated to pedestrian or driver safety. “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” he wrote on social media.
Duffy and other Republicans point to a 2011 Federal Highway Administration declaration — offered without supporting evidence — that crosswalk art is “contrary to the goal of increased safety” and creates a “false sense of security for both motorists and pedestrians” by making white lines harder to distinguish from the pavement.
However, a 2022 Bloomberg Philanthropies study of asphalt art contradicts those claims. It found crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists dropped 50% at painted intersections. The study also reported fewer driver-pedestrian conflicts, a 27% increase in drivers yielding, and a 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing against the signal.
The study also found a 37% drop in crash-related injuries at painted intersections.
In response to a request for comment, the Federal Highway Administration issued a statement to Columbus CBS affiliate WBNS.
“Under Secretary Duffy’s leadership, the department is getting back to basics and enforcing the rules already on the books — roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” the statement said. “The Secretary has made every state receiving federal dollars responsible for identifying hazards on their roads.”
The FHA did not respond to follow-up questions or acknowledge funding the crosswalk as part of the study. Other outlets also reported their requests for comment were ignored.
Some Columbus residents believe the vandal may have targeted the crosswalk to send an anti-LGBTQ message, citing other cases where rainbow crosswalks were defaced by social conservatives or Trump supporters.
This month, for example, the Florida Department of Transportation painted over a rainbow crosswalk in Orlando, across from the former site of the Pulse nightclub. The crosswalk had been created to honor the 49 victims of the 2016 mass shooting there.
Closer to Columbus, rainbow crosswalks in cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland Heights have also been vandalized in recent months. And in June 2024, workers in Whitehall were threatened while installing rainbow sidewalks for Pride Month, the Dispatch reported.
“While it doesn’t surprise me, considering the current political trajectory in the country, it is rather disappointing,” resident Ian Schlegel told WBNS about the vandalism.
“I think it is kind of disheartening, honestly,” said resident Kailee Thiel. “We take a lot of pride in our city looking beautiful, and for people to disrespect something like that is hurtful to the LGBTQ community — assuming that is what they are directing it towards.”
Authorities in Morocco have arrested Ibtissame "Betty" Lachgar, a prominent feminist and human rights activist, over a T-shirt reading, "Allah is lesbian."
The slogan echoes the phrase "God is a Lesbian," first published in the 2013 book The Perils of Pedagogy: The Works of John Greyson. The phrase has appeared on T-shirts as both satire and religious critique, according to The New Arab, a London-based pan-Arab news outlet.
In an X post sharing a photo of the shirt, Lachgar wrote, "In Morocco, I walk around with T-shirts bearing messages against religions, Islam, etc. You tire us with your sanctimoniousness, your accusations. Yes, Islam, like any religious ideology, is fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic."
The U.S. Department of Education says it will begin suspending or cutting off federal funds to five Northern Virginia school districts that refused to roll back transgender-inclusive policies by an August 15 deadline.
"The Virginia districts will have to defend their embrace of radical gender ideology over ensuring the safety of their students," the agency wrote in a statement.
The five districts -- Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County public schools -- were previously threatened with losing federal funding after the Education Department determined that their trans-affirming policies, including allowing transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity, infringe on the rights of non-transgender students.
St. Agatha Catholic School, a Portland-based Catholic school serving grades pre-K through 8, is facing backlash from some parents after rescinding an offer of enrollment to the children of a same-sex couple at the direction of the Rev. Father Luan Tran, pastor of the affiliated St. Agatha Catholic Church.
The family -- who requested anonymity out of concern for their safety -- applied to enroll their children last May, even arranging for one child to "shadow" a student for a day. They informed the school of their family situation.
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