“A powerful civic symbol”: Gainesville City Commission dual-names road after LGBTQ activist, votes to reuse rainbow bricks in City Hall Plaza

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the October 16 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission dual-named a road for LGBTQ activist Terry Fleming and voted to reuse the rainbow bricks in front of City Hall, with several Commissioners requesting additional art installations across the city to support the LGBTQ community.

After presenting proclamations for American Pharmacists’ Month, Lights On After School, and Islam Appreciation Month, Commissioners took up the dual-naming of NE/SE 1st Street in honor of LGBTQ activist Terry Fleming. 

Mayor Harvey Ward said Fleming served as the State Committeeman for the Alachua Democratic Party, was co-president of the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida, president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, and past president and treasurer of the Stonewall Democrats of Alachua County. Ward said Fleming filed the incorporation paperwork for the Pride Center in 2002 and was active at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and in the NAACP. Fleming advocated for local anti-conversion-therapy and human rights ordinances and also volunteered in many organizations, including GRACE Marketplace and the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery. Fleming was instrumental in raising the money to pay for rainbow crosswalks in downtown Gainesville, which were recently removed. 

Motion

Commissioner Casey Willits made a motion to dual-name NE/SE 1st Street from NE 2nd Avenue to SE 2nd Avenue “Terry Fleming Street,” and a chorus of Commissioners seconded the motion. 

Five people spoke in favor of the motion during public comment, including Mason Manion of Equality Florida, who said the mandate to remove non-compliant crosswalks had “nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with silencing our community and erasing our visibility. Gainesville has always been a beacon of inclusion, and we cannot allow Tallahassee’s overreach to dim that light. This behavior by the State is part of a broader, nationally coordinated effort to push LGBTQ people out of public life, from banning books to whitewashing history.” He asked the City for “a very specific action: for every rainbow that DeSantis covers, we’re asking for you to put up two more — bigger, bolder, and louder. This has never been just about bricks or paint or pavement; it’s about whether we stand firm in our values of inclusion.”

After public comment, Ward said, “Every cause that anybody really embraced, Terry was probably already there first”; he also said Fleming cautioned him against overreach when advocating for change. 

Commissioner James Ingle added, “One of the things… [Fleming didn’t get] recognition for, was what a staunch supporter he was of the Labor movement… He was a good guy, an inspiration.”

Willits said Fleming brought him into local politics and taught him to “keep your eyes on the prize and keep on moving toward that, but also to have some joy along the way… I’m so thrilled that we can do this on 1st Street as one step in memorializing not just Terry Fleming, but the entire LGBTQ+ community and the history in Gainesville and Florida.” 

City Clerk Kristen Bryant said Fleming always supported the church’s youth ministry and was a founder of Love Out Loud, “the first LGBTQ+ ministry that Holy Trinity recognized as an official ministry of the church.”

The motion to dual-name the street passed unanimously.

Reusing the rainbow bricks

The next agenda item was a discussion on reusing the rainbow bricks that were removed from the downtown crosswalks. Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Director Roxy Gonzalez said staff had identified “a meaningful opportunity to reintegrate the rainbow brick pavers, a beloved piece of Gainesville’s public art history, into a new design of our civic space.”

Gonzalez said her staff proposed incorporating the rainbow bricks into City Hall Plaza, which is currently undergoing renovation. She pointed to a triangular area in the plaza design that incorporates two crossing paths and a seating area “for those that want to sit there. It also allows for photo ops, and it also allows for those [who want to walk] over the bricks.” She said the installation “creates a powerful civic symbol, right at City Hall, that tells a story about who we are as a community.” She said the fiscal impact would be “minimal” because the cost would be absorbed into the City Hall renovation budget. The staff recommendation was to approve the placement of the bricks and authorize continued coordination with the Pride Community Center on the final design.

Motion

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation, and Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker seconded the motion. 

Book: “This is just recognizing what we do in the city. It’s recognizing a leader, and it allows people to feel that they’re meaningful from the City Commission and that they’re valued.”

Commissioner Ed Book said that dual-naming the street and reusing the bricks “are no-brainers. This is just recognizing what we do in the city. It’s recognizing a leader, and it allows people to feel that they’re meaningful from the City Commission and that they’re valued. So these are easy ones.” He asked whether all the bricks would be used in the City Hall Plaza.

Gonzalez said that not all of the bricks are in great condition, so they might not all be used, and some could be used as replacements if others get damaged. Book said it would be nice to place extra bricks “in various areas, maybe a brick at a park, a brick on a trail,… historical museum and historical markers… You’re putting bricks in existing areas that get people moving around the city and realizing just how important different values are to us.”

Willits said the City Hall Plaza design is “a really good solution,… and I hope in the future, we can do other things.” He proposed historical markers “to tell a little more of the story.”

Gonzalez said the City Hall Plaza was just the first step, and staff was working with the Pride Community Center to identify locations for “murals, sculptures, and so forth.”

Ingle: Historical markers could demonstrate that “Gainesville strives very much to be a welcoming town that stands behind the LGBTQ community, but also that when authoritarians come in and tell us how things are going to be, we find a way to push back on that.”

Ingle said it would be important to place a marker near the bricks “that kind of tells this whole story,… not only that Gainesville strives very much to be a welcoming town that stands behind the LGBTQ community, but also that when authoritarians come in and tell us how things are going to be, we find a way to push back on that… They tell us to tear these things up, and they’re going to come right back and come back stronger.”

Duncan-Walker said she loved “the idea of the old bricks because it’s a rough road to equality, and I think that there’s a symbolism and a strong and powerful message in that alone… It is the rough road, but it is also a hopeful future.” She suggested that some of the bricks might be installed at the Pride Community Center, and Ingle and Ward also supported that; Ward said other supportive and connected organizations might also want some of the bricks.

Ward: “I want to make sure that the City of Gainesville is involved in at least one LGBT-supportive art installation in every district of the city… I want to make sure that every kid who feels different and has been told that there’s something wrong with them can see something from the City of Gainesville that says, ‘No, we see you, and you belong.'”

Ward continued, “No matter how many other art installations we do, whether they include bricks or not, I want to make sure that the City of Gainesville is involved in at least one LGBT-supportive art installation in every district of the city… I want to make sure that every kid who feels different and has been told that there’s something wrong with them can see something from the City of Gainesville that says, ‘No, we see you, and you belong,’ — so at least one in every district, please.”

During public comment on the motion, Donn Smith-Lopez, president of the Pride Community Center, said the Center is excited to work with the City on art installations “such as the proposed building mural featuring the Progress Flag and imagery of balance and unity, which, again, further would celebrate our city’s diversity.”

Mason Manion said it was “an amazing thing to sit here and see this panel of leaders and to hear the mayor of a city saying things like this, because the town that I grew up in, it’s not like that… So I just want to say, you are all modeling leadership and reminding everyone through these actions that the community is diverse. The LGBTQ community is part of this community, is part of this world, and we are valuable to the community.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Second motion

Chestnut then made a motion to refer to the Historic Preservation Advisory Board a recommendation to explore a historic marker to coincide with the reuse of rainbow bricks and their significance and return to the Commission within 90 days. There were multiple seconds.

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “I think that we’ve always been a place that has stood up for people that have been different or felt differently or might not have fit into other areas, and I think this is a good opportunity for us to talk about our LGBTQ history, but also to just talk about who we are as a community, as people that have stood up.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Discussion about a rainbow crosswalk at the Streatery

After the vote, Ingle said, “Partially because of advocacy, but partially because I just don’t really like being told what to do, I would really like to know what it would cost to put a rainbow crosswalk as part of the Streatery… And even if Tallahassee says we can’t have one, we’ve got one.”

Special Advisor for Infrastructure Brian Singleton said that the Streatery will still be a public right-of-way, so it would have to follow the same regulations as other roads, and “that kind of installation would not be allowed.”

Willits asked whether the stanchions that will form a barrier to traffic could be painted “in multiple colors,” and Singleton said he would review the regulations for barriers that block traffic.

Ward: “I want to take a swing as much as everybody else does, but we don’t have a lot of power in this situation, and we can just keep doing it until they really come after it — is that where we want to put all our energy?”

Ward said, “It’s a street… And I’ll promise you, they’re going to come after us for doing it… I want to take a swing as much as everybody else does, but we don’t have a lot of power in this situation, and we can just keep doing it until they really come after it — is that where we want to put all our energy?” He said the City is still “working on another situation on 8th Avenue, and I don’t want to poke the bear too much, just in case things work out well there. But if they don’t work out well on the 8th Avenue situation, I have some thoughts… The question is which fights we want to fight… As I’ve said in a few other places, we need to be like water and not keep going back to the same place but go different places and keep going around things, not right back in front of them… Let’s find things they haven’t made rules about yet, and then they’ll make a rule about that, and we’ll make it somewhere else.”

No motions were made about a rainbow crosswalk at the Streatery.