FDOT plans to keep red, white and blue lights on all decorative bridges through the end of next year, every night other than federal holidays.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Every color of the rainbow lit up the Acosta Bridge in downtown Jacksonville Sunday night.
For the fifth year in a row, the LGBTQ+ community of the city gathered to march across the bridge, marking the start of Pride month and voicing their opposition to the Florida Department of Transportation’s refusal to alter the decorative bridge lights to rainbow colors.
FDOT’s new policy this year is to keep the bridge red, white and blue nearly every day of the year.
In response to the absence of rainbow lighting, Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ members have embraced a tradition where, for one night each year, they illuminate the bridge themselves.
“I want to express my willingness to listen, to offer a warm embrace, and to do whatever I can to provide support,” stated Deborah Johnson as she joined the march across the bridge.
Johnson lives down in St. Augustine, but every year she makes the trek up to Jacksonville during Pride month to join the march across the Acosta Bridge.
“Sometimes it’s hard, you feel like you’re in this small world all by yourself,” said Johnson. “You wonder, ‘Does anyone else think like me? Am I the only one?’ So it’s just coming out here and seeing other like-minded people, it just feels good.”
The Acosta Bridge Pride March started in 2021 to protest the removal of the Pride rainbow colors from the decorative lights on the bridge.
Last year, FDOT changed its policy for Freedom Summer, making all decorative bridge lights in the state red, white and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
The agency expanded that to every night of the year this year through the end of 2026, with the only exception for nine federal holidays, which don’t include Pride month.
Those holidays are: New Year’s Day, MLK Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas Day.
“We can’t control the politics at play,” said Pride march organizer Amy Glassman. “All we can do is show up for one another, stay positive, build hope in our community.”
In the past, the bridge has changed colors for things like Autism Acceptance, Black History Month, and Jaguars games – none of that can happen under the new FDOT policy.
FDOT Secretary Jared Purdue said in a post on X, “Pride in Country is nothing to be quiet about. FDOT is proud to showcase patriotic colors on our state bridges and highways beginning this Friday [May 20th] through 2026 in commemoration of #America250. Doing so reinforces how lucky we are to live in the Free State of Florida, USA.”
“Ideally, having the Pride lights on for maybe a week, and then rotating for the other holidays as well would be the best outcome so everyone has representation, and they see themselves in the middle of our city,” said Glassman.
The group’s initial plan was to march across the Acosta Bridge and light up the Main Street Bridge once it got dark.
However, due to planned maintenance on the Main Street Bridge, the group decided to go back up the Acosta Bridge.
