Salt Lake City – The leaders of the capital of Utah voted to add three new flags in the city, all incorporating unauthorized conceptions thanks to a new law on the state flag, to bypass the hours of measure before entering the law.
The mayor of Salt Lake City, Erin Mendenhall, unveiled three new conceptions of flag of the city on Tuesday evening to the members of the municipal council of Salt Lake, when she explained how the city plans to go ahead following HB77 on the eve of the bill.
The new flags would add the Lily logo of the flag of the city of Salt Lake City to the Juneteenth, Progress Pride and Transgender Flags. The three flags were not included in the list of flags approved to be piloted outside the government or in schools. The new flags would not replace the city’s main flag, which was adopted in 2020.
“These flags in the city represent the ideas and principles that salt lakers know under the name of basic principles-belonging and acceptance, or better declared: diversity. Equity. Inclusion,” she said, sitting next to the four flags in a work chamber of the municipal council of Salt Lake.
“I thought a lot about it, and I don’t do it lightly. My sincere intention is not to provoke or cause a division; my intention is to represent the values of our city and to honor our dear residents that make up this beautiful city,” she added. “May the Lily sego represent the beauty and resilience of all those who live here, regardless of their race, their ethnic origin, their sex, their faith, their income or their sexual orientation.”
The members of the City Council of Salt Lake voted Tuesday evening to approve the measure of the last second. The seven members shared laps explaining their vote after lining up to take a photo in front of the following flags earlier during the day.
“Today is an act of love … for each member of our community,” said advisor Sarah Young before the vote.
HB77, which inscribes on Wednesday, indicates the flags that can be piloted in government schools and buildings. The American flags, Utah, Comté, Municipal, Tribal, Military and Olympic are among the approved flags, while the flags representing the LGBTQ communities and the Juneteenth flag – used to celebrate the holidays where the last slaves were released after the civil war – were not included.
The representative Trevor Lee, R-Layton, the sponsor of the bill, said that the measure consists in maintaining political neutrality in public spaces. Opposite people, including Salt Lake City, argued that it was targeting certain minority groups and could violate the government’s freedom of expression. The city piloted Juneteenth, progressed pride and transgender flags outside the town hall for days or specific months for years.
HB77 has become “one of the most dividing bills” in the legislative session of 2025, as Governor Spencer Cox said. The governor finally refused to sign the bill, but also allowed the bill to continue, explaining in a letter which it adopted with a majority to the TOF test.
“I continue to have serious concerns with this bill. However, because a veto would be replaced, I decided to allow the bill to go to law without my signature and to urge legislators to consider common sense solutions that deal with the many defects of the bill,” he wrote.
The leaders of Salt Lake City have raised a flag of progression of pride and lit the summit of the building of Salt Lake City-County in rainbow colors on the last day of the legislative session. The flag was still flying Tuesday, before the new law.
Behind the scenes, the city leaders examined the bill to reconstruct their next steps. Conversations began a few days after the end of the session, said the president of the municipal council of Salt Lake, Chris Wharton.
The city officials had the idea of placing the Lily sego – a symbol of the flag of the primary city – on the three flags, he stole once at some point in these discussions, transforming them into the city’s flags.
“We simply looked at HB77 and discovered that there is, in fact, a means for cities to approve additional official flags,” said Mendenhall, noting that there is nothing in the law prohibiting a city from having more than one flag and that the state has four official flags.
We do not know what will happen next, but Lee was wind of the city move on Tuesday evening.
“Does Salt Lake City really want to play these games? Good luck!” He posted on X.
Senator Dan McCay, R-Riverton, the sponsor of the bill, published a photo of a flag with the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints with a Lily Sego on X, as well as the message: “excited that (the mayor) and (the municipal council) also fly this new SLC flag so that all historical constituents are” “” “” “”
Only two people talked about the measure during the municipal council on Tuesday evening, both speaks in support of the city.
Mendenhall said that she knew that “remuneration” is possible, but she said that the city wanted to “defend our values”. She maintains that the measure helps the city to remain in accordance with the law while increasing the flags it has made.
Wharton agrees.
“These are the flags that have stolen above the town hall and Washington Square for years and years, and we are just trying to find a way to continue,” he said. “We are not trying to do something particularly new or exciting.”
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