SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Members of Sarasota’s LGBTQ+ community and their allies gathered downtown Saturday evening for an event they say was about compassion, solidarity, and visibility in the face of what they view as statewide erasure.

Community non-profit organization Project Pride SRQ, hosted “Compassion at the Crosswalk” Saturday evening.

The organization says the idea of the gathering came after the Florida Department of Transportation, or FDOT, ordered cities to remove all decorative street art that does not comply with federal traffic standards. FDOT cited safety concerns, but local advocates say the move has deeper implications.

Project Pride Executive Director Tom Edwards said the decision hit especially hard after the removal of rainbow crosswalks in front of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub — the site of the 2016 mass shooting that killed 49 people.

“It was an important moment to come together as a community and not only just commiserate about the losses that we had here in Sarasota,” Edwards said. “But what really broke my heart was the removal of the crosswalk in front of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.”

Edwards called that crosswalk a memorial to the victims and said removing it reopened old wounds.

“That was a memorial crosswalk for the victims of the shooting there,” he said. “There were 49 families that had their grief and their trauma re-triggered.”

Alice Rothbauer, vice chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota County, said she supports remembering those lost but believes public resources should be used equally.

“We grieve for the loss of life, however it happens,” Rothbauer said. “But when we put state resources that effectively give one group preference over another, it creates divide.”

Rothbauer also defended FDOT’s focus on consistency and safety.

“Have you been through the roundabouts in Sarasota? Confusion is everywhere,” she said. “And so uniformity — every color means something — creates greater public safety.”

Edwards said the debate over street art reflects a larger struggle across Florida and the nation.

“What we’ve seen is every small special interest group — veterans, the Hispanic community, the Black community, women’s rights — all of those individual silos have been fighting for their own rights,” he said. “It’s time for us to band together and have each other’s backs and get the government we deserve.”

Rothbauer said that Saturday’s gathering itself demonstrated that visibility and free expression still exist in Sarasota.

Attendees at “Compassion at the Crosswalk” said they hoped the conversation would continue toward a broader sense of inclusion and understanding.