Multiple Cities Adopt Pride Flag As Official City Emblems To Avoid Bans

The capital cities of Idaho and Utah adopted measures to make the pride flag an official city flag to get around bans passed by their Republican-controlled legislatures.

“Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall proposed adopting three new City flags, in addition to the traditional Sego Lily Flag, on Tuesday to most accurately reflect the values of the City and its residents. The Salt Lake City Council adopted the flags via ordinance in its formal meeting,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office announced in a press release.

The three additional city flags include:

• The Sego Celebration Flag, representing the history of Juneteenth and the City’s Black and African American residents;
• The Sego Belonging Flag, representing the City’s LGBTQIA residents and broader acceptance of this community; and
• The Sego Visibility Flag, representing the City’s transgender residents and a commitment to seeing and celebrating their lives.

WATCH:

BREAKING: Salt Lake City makes LGBTQ flags official city flags in order to evade Utah’s flag banning at gov buildings pic.twitter.com/yVTypb9wph

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 7, 2025

Boise made the traditional pride flag one of its official city flags.

WATCH:

BREAKING — Boise City Council voted to make the Pride Flag an “official city flag,” despite the Idaho House passing HB 96, which bans any flag other than the US flag from being flown on government buildings. pic.twitter.com/AcEduff5TA

— Liberacrat (@Liberacrat) May 7, 2025

From the Associated Press:

The cities’ mayors spoke Tuesday morning to discuss their individual plans and offer each other support, said Andrew Wittenberg, a spokesperson for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office.

“My sincere intent is not to provoke or cause division,” Mendenhall said. “My intent is to represent our city’s values and honor our dear diverse residents who make up this beautiful city and the legacy of pain and progress that they have endured.”

Idaho’s flag ban took effect April 3, barring government buildings from displaying any flags except those on a short list including the U.S. flag, flags of military branches and official flags of government entities. A separate ban containing some exemptions for school buildings takes effect July 1.

Supporters said the laws would encourage political neutrality from teachers and other government employees. Opponents argued they aimed to erase LGBTQ+ expression and wrest authority from cities and towns that did not align politically with the Republican Legislatures.

More than a dozen other states are considering similar measures.

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The pride flag has regularly flown over Boise’s City Hall for years, and Mayor Lauren McLean kept the flag aloft even after Idaho’s law took effect. McLean said she believed the law was unenforceable.

But Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador recently warned he would ask lawmakers to add an enforcement mechanism in the 2026 legislative session.

Salt Lake City and Boise make pride flags official city emblems, skirting flag ban lawshttps://t.co/8XWdA2Rc5x pic.twitter.com/GwZmREMOmP

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 8, 2025

The Guardian reports:

The new flags were a direct reaction to Utah’s House Bill 77, which narrowed the list of allowable flags to the state flag, the US flag, Olympic and Paralympic flags, official college flags or tribal flags, a city or county flag, military flags. State and local governments could be fined $500 a day for flying other unofficial flags.

Idaho’s House Bill 96 restricted flags to a list including the US flag, the POW/MIA flag, the official flags of Idaho colleges, universities and public schools, the official flags of military branches, and the Idaho state flag. The pride flag has flown over Boise’s city hall for years. Boise mayor Lauren McLean issued a proclamation in response, retroactively making the pride flag an official city flag.