The Rainbow Crosswalks at 10th St. & Piedmont Ave. Symbols of acceptance,
unity & tolerance representing the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
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The Atlanta Rainbow Crosswalks is the brainchild of Robert Sepulveda Jr., an Entrepreneur/Interior Designer/Community activist and most recently the Prince on season 1 of Logo TV's hit show, "Finding Prince Charming"!
The journey of this project has been filled with many joyous moments of progress, as well as moments when we thought we couldn't go any further. Navigating city bureaucracy and red tape can be an overwhelmingly daunting feat to accomplish; paperwork to file, meetings to attend, departments to be approved by and weeks of hearing nothing back. He originally contacted the City of Atlanta last year, August 2014, with a proposal about installing The Rainbow Crosswalks at the 10th St. & Piedmont Ave location in Midtown before PRIDE 2014. That didnt happen but the crosswalks were installed for the PRIDE festivities of 2015.
The GoFundMe campaign raised over $44,000.
The 10th St. & Piedmont Ave. intersection has long been the epicenter of the LGBTQ+ community with pioneering LGBTQ+ business such as the notable Out Write bookstore and coffeehouse that was established in 1993, being the first LGBT bookstore in the city of Atlanta. Not only does the PRIDE Parade route pass over the 10th St. and Piedmont Ave crosswalks, but the most high-profile LGBTQ+ locality in Atlanta is Midtown. Also, Atlanta is home to one of the highest LGBTQ+ populations per capita, which is third among major US cities behind San Francisco and Seattle. 12.8% of Atlanta's city population identifies themselves as LGBTQ+ .
We would be joining a group of world cities that have already implemented these crosswalks in places such as; Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Philadelphia, West Hollywood, Seattle, Northampton Massachusetts, as well as international cities such as; Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney and Tele Aviv. These crossings have demonstrated significant economic, social and cultural benefits. Most importantly, the symbolic crossing will positively promote Atlanta with expected benefits for tourism and retail activity in the area. Also, Atlanta’s Pride festival, being the largest in the South East is expected to draw upwards of 300,000 participants to Atlanta.
What we'd like you to know is that, this is not just an LGBT issue and these are not just painted crosswalks; The crosswalks themselves will bring the advancement of unity and awareness of human rights through public art. We all know Atlanta is in the center of the Deep South with religion being at the core of many family bonds as well as very rural areas only minutes away from Midtown. Our mission behind these crosswalks are for everyone
to know, whether they are just coming out, closeted, bi, trans, having difficulty accepting themselves; whether they are too afraid to share who they really are or to afraid be who they really want to be; those that family members disowned or shunned; and like many of us that have faced discrimination because of who we love and how we were born, that yes, you are welcome here, you are safe here and you will be treated with respect and dignity and the City of Atlanta itself stands behind you.