As of March 18, Sechelt has gone double rainbow.
On Monday, District of Sechelt workers installed thermoplastic road markings, also known as a rainbow crosswalk, on Cowrie Street between Inlet and Trail avenues. Sechelt’s original rainbow appeared at Chatelech Secondary School last September, and was a student-led initiative.
There are more than 40 communities in B.C. with rainbow crosswalks.
It got me wondering where the idea for variegated road crossings came from. According to my Internet research, the first rainbows originated in L.A. and Tel Aviv in 2013, though that’s also when Vancouver got its first, at the intersection of Davie and Bute streets.
And why crosswalks, of all city-owned sundries? According to Danish artist Rodney Scott, who had suggested the West Hollywood initiative to then-mayor Jeff Prang, the idea was to “give visibility to gay rights.” In his endorsement, mayor Prang said, “In parts of the world and even in this country where being gay or lesbian has to be repressed for mere survival, our rainbow crosswalks signify that in West Hollywood, LGBT people can be proud of themselves.”
As straightforward as the idea may be, the past year – and past few days – have made it colourfully clear that not everyone celebrates gay pride.
Back in August, the same day we reported that Sechelt would be getting a rainbow crosswalk, another media outlet published another story about a freshly installed rainbow crosswalk in White Rock that was vandalized with swastikas and “gender-based slurs,” according to pride organizer Ernie Klassen. The crosswalk had been installed for 10 days. A week before that, the crosswalk in Salmon Arm was also defaced. It had been installed for less than a week.
Opinions about the Cowrie Street crosswalk have been piling up since Monday’s installation. Hundreds of comments and shares have burned through local Facebook groups, some commending it as a mark of inclusion, many faulting it as taxpayer money frivolously spent. Others have used it to vent their frustrations with local government on issues such as water and sinkholes. A few have crossed the line into blatant homophobia.
While the waste-of-tax-dollars argument has been largely refuted – turns out a colourful crosswalk made of plastic tiles is more durable and could be more cost-effective than painted white bars – I’m still surprised by the extent of negative attention this bright change has received.
And the rainbow scourge looks to be spreading. Word on the street says discussions are underway for a rainbow crosswalk at a school in Gibsons, and the Town is expected to consider a proposal next week as part of budget deliberations.
Maybe by then the haters will have walked it off, and with so many rainbows in our midst, we can all be proud of ourselves.
