In a letter to Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Nov. 10, openly-gay Dallas City Councilman Chad West asked Tolbert to contact Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa’s office to request that, once she takes office in January, Hinojos will reconsider Greg Abbot’s order that cities remove all non-standard crosswalks or risk losing state and federal funds.
“I hereby request the City of Dallas contact Governor-elect Hinojosa’s office to formally request reconsideration of the 2025 directive and allow the City of Dallas to restore our decorative crosswalks,” West wrote in his letter. “As we know, these crosswalks have many benefits. Many of these decorative crosswalks were privately funded. Evidence shows that decorative crosswalks can provide more safety than traditional crosswalks. These crosswalks also serve as economic development tools, driving vibrancy in some of our most visited commercial areas including Oak Lawn and Uptown.”
That same day, the Dallas Morning News ran an article online about West’s letter to the city manager and recounting the history of the city’s rainbow crosswalks. And the very idea of it was so utterly infuriating for one homophobe that he felt compelled to call and leave a profanity-laden message threatening to spank West’s naked butt on national TV on the voicemail linked to the public phone number for West’s chief of staff, Jake Ettinger.
The caller was so firm in his convictions that, of course he blocked his number when he called, and he left no name. But you can listen to the audio of the 1 minute, 49 second call below. And just to make sure you get the full gist of it, we’re including a transcript below the audio,
“Goddamn you sound gay on your voicemail, dude. You gotta put some bass in your voice. Take a fuckin shot of testosterone. Put your fuckin pants on like a goddamn man, ok?
You do have a penis, right? Do you even know what you have?
When I saw your little faggot Facebook post — You’re gonna bring back all those rainbow crosswalks in Dallas. Did you bother to check with the people in Dallas to see if that’s what we want, you stupid son of a bitch?
Did you fucking ever think that that’s your fucking job, to work for us, not yourself, not your little fucking gay agenda, your woke fucking agenda? You and Gina Hinojosa — She’s probably got a bigger dick than you do, actually.
You fucking make sick. And we are gonna get you removed. You have no business in government. You have no business representing any of the constituents because you — the gays are a minority, dude. Like, 10 percent of the population. So even if all 10 percent want your stupid fucking crosswalks back, we don’t have the time and money to do this, dude.
We have better shit to do. Go feed homeless people. Go fix education. Go fucking fix the roads that are fucking up my Bent — my $250,000 Bentley, you stupid motherfucker. Do you even know what your fucking job is?
I wanna pull your pants down. Then I wanna pull your panties down. Then I know you are wearing a G-string under that. And you probably got something weird under that. I wanna pull it all down and expose your fucking dumb ass, and I wanna fucking spank the fuck out of you, until your bottom is bright red, on national TV.
Please. Let’s do this. Let me just bend you over my knee and teach you a fucking lesson. Because I am so fucking sick of you fucking Dem-tard idiot fucks getting in my way.”
While other decorative crosswalks in Dallas and elsewhere got caught in the crossfire, Abbot’s directive — prompted by the Trump administration’s war on woke aiming to erase any and all programs, policies and initiatives aimed at expanding and impproving diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of government — was specifically intended to erase the rainbow crosswalks in Dallas’ Oak Lawn Gayborhood and LGBTQ+ neighborhoods in other cities.
The first rainbow crosswalks in Oak Lawn were installed in 2020, and were paid for entirely bu private donations. No public funds went into their installation.
But by the start of 2025, the original rainbow crosswalks had become significantly deteriorated. So the North Texas LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce and the Cedar Springs Merchants Association worked together to find a new, more durable design and materials and raised money to have new crosswalks installed, getting the project finished just in time for June Pride Month.
Again, the crosswalks were paid for entirely through private donations.
But Abbott’s directive to demolish the colorful came in October 2025, and despite the city’s request for a special exemption, state officials told city officials in January this year that they had 90 days to remove the crosswalks. And on March 23, city crews arrived in the Gayborhood to scrape away the rainbows.
Businesses along The Cedar Springs Strip have responded by hanging rainbow banners painting rainbows on every possible surface — including the front steps of the historic Oak Lawn United Methodist Church sanctuary and the steps of the Oak Lawn Branch of the Dallas Public library, and they have