Add Atlanta, Georgia, to the list of cities with rainbow crosswalks celebrating LGBT pride.
After 20,000 people had signed a petition in support of making temporary rainbow crosswalks permanent, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced last week that the city would oblige their request.
Atlanta isn’t alone in sporting “pride”-themed crosswalks. Seattle was one of the first cities to install permanent rainbow crosswalks, which were unveiled by Mayor Ed Murray two years ago during Pride Week. It cost the city—whose politicians often complain that they don’t have enough money to provide supposedly essential services to citizens—at least $66,000 to paint the eleven crosswalks.
The crosswalks are intended to showcase the historic role played by the LGBT movement in Seattle. Murray told reporters at the time that the crosswalks show that Seattle is a “tolerant and accepting city.” This is the same “tolerant and accepting” Seattle that has banned minors and their parents from seeking biblically based therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction.
Several other cities across the country also have permanent rainbow crosswalks, and many more temporarily paint their crosswalks multicolored in support of annual Pride festivals.
Supporters say rainbow crosswalks recognize the important contributions of the LGBT community.
Critics believe the crosswalks celebrate alternative lifestyles that many taxpayers don’t support. The homosexual lifestyle has been “associated with negative physical and psychological health effects” and is “harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large,” according to social scientists.
It’s ironic that many of the strongest supporters of rainbow crosswalks oppose nativity scenes and other symbols of faith on public property because they worry government might give the impression it “endorses” those views, yet they don’t bat an eye at cities erecting rainbow crosswalks in praise of the LGBT movement and alternative sexual lifestyles.
Should cities endorse the LGBT movement by using public funds to finance rainbow crosswalks celebrating LGBT pride? Let us know in the comments below.
