Have you ever wondered how a rainbow crosswalk gets approved? Does city council take the initiative? Do citizens just have to ask for it? Is there push-back?
This is the process I went through, to get a rainbow crosswalk installed in Coquitlam:

It all began when I posted on Facebook, expressing a desire for a rainbow crosswalk in Coquitlam, similar to the ones on Davie Street, in Vancouver. The mayor of Coquitlam, Richard Stewart, seemed interested, and encouraged me to bring the suggestion forward to Coquitlam City Council. The previous year, city councillor, Teri Towner, had brought forward a similar idea, however that idea was squashed behind closed doors, so there is no record to point to, as to why that happened, however I gathered that council believed doing so would be a “proclamation,” and council has a policy of not doing proclamations,

I partnered with a local LGBTQIA2S+ advocate in Coquitlam, Ian Soutar, and we brought the idea forward to Coquitlam City Council, at a Council-in-Committee meeting. We proposed a rainbow crosswalk and a transgender crosswalk. In general, council seemed reticent to approve a transgender crosswalk, because it represented a specific group of people, with some councillors raising concerns about a ‘slippery slope’ leading to Nazi crosswalks, so I presented the rainbow as a symbol of diversity for everyone, highlighting the meaning behind the colours of Gilbert Baker’s Pride rainbow. The Pride rainbow is a pretty broad symbol of diversity, which only excludes those who seek to oppress queer folks.

It took many meetings with individual councillors, and public advocacy work, to move this project forward, since there were only a few passionate supporters of the idea on council. The rest of council appeared to either be opposed, but unwilling to state that so bluntly, or interested in changing the meaning of the Pride rainbow, by adding a plaque to specify that Coquitlam’s crosswalk is about general diversity, rather than letting it stand alone, as the symbol it is known for being.

In response to numerous emails and comments on social media, from people both supporting and denouncing the rainbow crosswalk idea, Mayor Richard Stewart responded in this manner:

Having seen the mayor of Coquitlam pushing the messaging of the rainbow being about all diversity, seemingly attempting to separate it from the queer community, for the sake of appeasing those who don’t support queer folks, I decided to look closely at the staff’s plan for the crosswalk, and I noticed that their mock-up included a 7 colour rainbow. I reached out to the city about this, and received a response stating that the city was attempting to make the rainbow about all diversity, rather than using the Pride rainbow. We have Progress Pride flags, which encompass more diversity, but this was not that, and did not incorporate the colours which the Pride flag’s designer, Gilbert Baker’s assigned meaning to. (sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, art, harmony, and spirit).

^{Coquitlam’s rainbow crosswalk mockup}

Having discovered that Coquitlam staff, and possibly council, were planning to install a 7 colour rainbow, in an attempt to transform it into a symbol of diversity separate from the Pride rainbow, and knowing Council’s intent to install signage, to explain the intent of the crosswalk as being representative of all diversity, I did an interview, in which I stated “if Coquitlam Council were to approve a 7 colour rainbow crosswalk, it would be a slap in the face to the queer community.” CKNW proceeded to release a story titled “City of Coquitlam’s approval of rainbow crosswalk -‘slap in the face’ for queer community,” which led to most of Coquitlam council wanting nothing more to do with me. Fortunately, Councillor Chris Wilson recognized the issue, and put a halt to the city moving forward with a 7 colour rainbow, by ensuring the decision was brought back to Mayor & Council, for a vote.

At this point, likely recognizing that, instead of satiating voters who were against the crosswalk, they were attracting unfavourable press coverage, and negative responses from the community, Coquitlam Council decided to move forward with Gilbert Baker’s 6 colour rainbow, and installed the crosswalk outside of Coquitlam City Hall.

This is the story of how the rainbow crosswalk in Coquitlam came to be.

Will every city follow the same path? No, but hopefully this account will help others navigate the strange world of political advocacy work.

– Nicola Spurling –