California LGBTQ Community Hails Insensitive Road Sign Removal

Californians who identify as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer are celebrating a small victory after a city council made it possible to remove street signs that at one time were put in place to discourage gatherings of non-heterosexual people.

Silver Lake is a section of town located in Los Angeles County that has made national headlines after some street signs were removed in the name of human equality. California is home to the largest estimated LGBTQ community at just under three million people, according to numbers from the Public Policy Institute of California. City officials gave the green light to take down multiple "No U-Turn" signs, as well as others that have been in the ground since the nineties.

This decision will likely set in motion a series of similar actions across the state.

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Nine signs in total were removed by city crews along Griffith Park Boulevard, which used to be the site of several bars that catered to the gay and lesbian community more than 20 years ago, according to nbclosangeles.com. Signs with the words, "No Cruising," were installed in 1997 to deter gay people from gathering in the neighborhood, according to NBC.

The fact that it took a 2022 podcast replay to alert city officials to the history of the signs is hard to fathom. I personally support following through with any measures that bring an end to discrimination of any form, so I think the sign removal was the right thing to do. This decision will likely set in motion a series of similar actions across the state.