When virtue-signalling goes wrong

Rainbow zebra crossings have spread like an unsightly rash across the world. When one first appeared in the town in which I live, opinion was divided. Well-meaning straight people enthused about ‘inclusivity’ while others harrumphed about ‘PC gone mad’. As for those who were supposed to be represented by the rainbow, most of us were somewhere between bemused and embarrassed – the overwhelming response was ‘why?’.

It’s hard to fathom what issue these gaudy stripes are supposed to address. Do local councils and highways agencies believe that special provision needs to be made to allow sexual minorities to walk across roads? Perhaps they imagine that, like hedgehogs, our only defence against the scourge of heteronormative traffic is to curl up into squishable balls.

In Canada – an early adopter of rainbow crossings – skid marks from car tyres were investigated as potential hate crimes against the LGBTQ ‘community’. The BBC reported that a rainbow crossing had been ‘smeared with burnt rubber’. Presumably similar incidents at black-and-white zebra crossings will now be considered racially aggravated offences.

A scheme in the German town of Hanau took things further. Local-council officials created ‘diversity’ parking spaces in an underground car park for migrants and LGBTQ people. City councillor Thomas Morlock said the idea was to help people who feel ‘a special need for protection’. Thankfully, users will not be required to carry papers to confirm their migration status or LGBTQ identity when using the spaces.

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