Arrested for repainting erased Dallas Pride crosswalks, Texas man says he’d do it again

A Texas man was arrested Tuesday after using chalk and spray paint to reapply rainbow patterns to Dallas crosswalks where they had been removed.

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Dallas city crews began removing street art honoring LGBTQ+ Pride and the Black Lives Matter movement this week, in compliance with a state mandate. Last October, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered the Texas Department of Transportation to remove symbols of political ideology from the state’s streets.

That has included rainbow walkways painted in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride, and street art commemorating the Black Lives Matter movement. For months, the removals have been a source of local pushback, especially in historically LGBTQ+ neighborhoods like Oak Lawn in Dallas.

Earlier this week, after police officers noticed Mason Whiteside spray-painting, they took him to a jail in Dallas County for an unrelated, years-old traffic violation, The Dallas Morning News reported. He paid to be released on Wednesday morning.

Related: Overnight standoff over Houston’s rainbow crosswalks ends with arrests

Related: Dallas destroys rainbow crosswalks under Texas mandate

“This isn’t the Dallas that I came to love,” Whiteside told The News. “How much longer until it’s not just crosswalks? Until they take our spaces, our actual spaces? There are a series of dominoes that could fall.”

Dallas is one of several cities across the United States to remove street art created in support of LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice.

Last March, street crews in D.C. removed a Black Lives Matter street mural that Mayor Muriel Bowser had promised in 2021 would be permanent, following pressure from the Trump administration.

Florida transportation officials issued a statewide mandate to remove rainbow crosswalks in all cities last year. Last July, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy alleged that rainbow crosswalks posed a safety hazard by distracting drivers.

President Donald Trump and Republican state leaders have broadly threatened to revoke federal and state funding toward cities that do not comply with these removals. In Dallas, transportation officials gave cities and counties just 30 days to remove street art or risk the “withholding or denial of state and federal road funding,” Abbott said last October.

Related: Florida man arrested for defacing Pride intersection painted to honor Pulse nightclub victims

For LGBTQ+ residents, the removal of symbols of LGBTQ+ Pride has been both concerning and a cause for action. Whiteside, who is queer, told The News he would repaint the crosswalks again, given the opportunity.

“Every single time they try to take it away,” Whiteside said, “I’m going to put it right back.”

This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.