Dallas wants Gina Hinojosa to put the rainbows back where Greg Abbott said they didn’t belong

Rainbow colored crosswalks could soon return to Texas streets.

After Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s victory over longtime Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, some city leaders in the Lone Star State hope she will reverse his directive targeting decorative crosswalks. Last year, Abbott ordered the removal of rainbow colored crosswalks to erase “political ideologies” from public roadways.

Dallas City Councilman Chad West has already called on his city, which had to destroy both LGBTQ+ Pride and Black Lives Matter crosswalks under Abbott’s mandate, to reach out to Hinojosa about restoring them. The city removed a rainbow crosswalk in March at Cedar Springs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue in the heart of Dallas’ LGBTQ+ business district.

Related: Cities in Texas and Florida install new rainbow walkways as Republicans crack down on Pride crosswalks

“Now we’ve got a new regime. We’re hoping to see a little bit more tolerance and more of a focus on what’s really important in the state,” West told Dallas Fox station KDFW. “And that doesn’t involve the removal of crosswalks, I would assume.”

In a letter, West asked City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to contact Hinojosa’s team now to discuss bringing back the crosswalks. He told the station that Tolbert agrees with the request. Dallas requested an exemption to Abbott’s order last year, but the request was denied.

Others are also pressing Hinojosa to change course. A petition launched on Change.org the day after Hinojosa’s election victory urges the Democrat to “make restoring rainbow crosswalks a priority upon taking office.”

Related: Dallas destroys rainbow crosswalks under Texas mandate

Abbott’s directive followed a call for crosswalk removals by U.S. Transportation Secretary and former The Real World cast member Sean Duffy, who in July 2025 sent letters to governors calling rainbow crosswalks “road hazards.”

“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy wrote.

Republican governors, including Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, quickly embraced the push. Florida even removed a memorial rainbow crosswalk outside the site of the Pulse nightclub shooting. While some city leaders, including those in San Antonio, continued installing such road features, Abbott continued pushing for their removal.

The Federal Highway Administration says high-visibility crosswalk markings can reduce pedestrian injury crashes by up to 40 percent, though that finding concerns standard designs such as ladder patterns, not rainbow or decorative crosswalks.