Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood has added a new chapter to its rich LGBTQ+ history. On October 6, city officials, artists, and community members gathered to unveil a series of rainbow crosswalks at South 2nd Street and West National Avenue, a project created to celebrate queer history and mark a lasting symbol of inclusion.
The installation was led by the Wisconsin LGBTQ+ History Project, a volunteer-run group dedicated to preserving the state’s queer heritage, in partnership with the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center and other local organizations. Artist Jeremy Novy, best known for his koi fish street art, designed the new crosswalks. His rainbow koi, featured alongside the colors of the Progress Pride Flag, highlight unity and connection within the LGBTQ+ community, a message rooted in both queer resilience and Walker’s Point’s legacy as Milwaukee’s oldest LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
At the dedication event, Wisconsin LGBTQ+ History Project chair Michail Takach reflected on the significance of the installation. “For some people this is just a rainbow, for some people this is just a crosswalk,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But the importance of this cannot be overstated right now.”
The crosswalks’ unveiling comes as rainbow-painted intersections across the country face increasing political and regulatory scrutiny. In Florida, the rainbow crosswalk outside Orlando’s Pulse nightclub was repainted in August 2025 after the state ordered its removal earlier this year, citing traffic-control standards. The site, created to honor the 49 victims of the 2016 Pulse shooting, had become a local landmark and symbol of resilience for the LGBTQ+ community.
Milwaukee’s decision offers a counterpoint to those removals. At a time when Pride symbols are being painted over elsewhere, the city chose to add new color, reaffirming that LGBTQ+ history deserves to be seen in public life year-round.
Walker’s Point has long served as a cornerstone of Milwaukee’s queer community. The neighborhood was once home to bars that quietly signaled safe entry with blue lights, a subtle code during decades when visibility carried real risk. The new crosswalks replace secrecy with celebration, transforming a once-clandestine sign of safety into a public affirmation of identity.
The new crosswalks join a growing collection of community art in Walker’s Point, including murals, plaques, and other tributes to LGBTQ+ history. The project was funded through private donations and completed with support from local partners and the City of Milwaukee.
Across the country, debates over rainbow crosswalks have come to symbolize larger tensions between public art, civic expression, and political control. Milwaukee’s example shows what happens when a city embraces the power of visibility instead of retreating from it.
The Walker’s Point project captures both history and hope. It honors a neighborhood that once relied on coded signals for safety and transforms it into a place of open visibility. In a moment when Pride symbols are being erased elsewhere, Milwaukee’s new rainbow crosswalks stand as a reminder that inclusion can be built into the very streets where history was made.