Another attempt to 'save' Utah's old S.O.B. flag bites the dust 

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CAPITOL HILL—Having failed to put a referendum on the ballot last year and with their current initiative campaign likely to fall short next week, opponents of the new Utah State Flag made one last effort to prevent the updated design from taking effect through legislation. But that effort also failed on Thursday, with a House committee declining to bring a bill to the House floor that would repeal the new flag and require a vote of the Utah public on any future redesigns.

After spirited testimony that replayed the hits of a now-6-year-old debate on Capitol Hill—that the new flag is "woke," that it erases Utah's pioneer history and that its creation is indicative of a Marxist attempt to "dethrone God and destroy capitalism"—members of the House Economic Development and Workforce Services committee voted 7-1 to simply move on to their next agenda item, holding the bill, HB436, in committee and all-but-certainly halting its progress in the 2024 Legislature.

"I don't want to go back and dig this up again and again," said Rep. Brett Garner, D-West Valley.

Sponsored by Blanding Republican Rep. Phil Lyman, HB346 would have turned back the clock on a multi-year effort that saw the creation of a state flag commission, the consideration of more than 7,000 design submissions and countless amounts of public comment, all of which resulted in the creation of a new design that prominently features a yellow beehive against a blue sky, snowy white mountains and a red rock canyon. By comparison, the prior design—still preserved in law as Utah's "historical" banner—consists of the state seal on a blue background, a style derided by flag enthusiasts as a "Seal on a Bedsheet," or "S.O.B.," and virtually indistinguishable at a distance from more than a dozen other state flags of a similar nature.

"You want to erase history?" said Michael De Groote, a proponent of maintaining both designs. "Put [the traditional flag] up on a pole and you can't see any of that history."

• Benjamin Wood
• Senators pose with the new Utah State Flag after the final vote for its creation on March 2, 2023.

Lyman argued that his bill was not a rejection of the new design, but a recognition that state symbols are simply too important to be decided merely by votes of the Utah Legislature, without direct input from their constituents.

"There are a lot of people who feel that the old flag was taken from them without a voice," said Lyman, who is running for governor as a conservative challenger to Spencer Cox. "The Utah State Flag has been a symbol for our state for a very long time. People are very attached to it."

But some members of the public, as well as lawmakers on the committee, noted that there is nothing in the law or common sense to prevent anyone from flying the design of their choosing, in effect allowing a vote of the people through their decisions around which flag to embrace as the new flag takes legal effect later this year.

"You still have the right to fly the flag that you love," Rep. Ariel Defay, R-Kaysville, said to those in attendance. "And please do."

But Tracie Halvorsen, who presented the bill alongside Lyman, said the existence of two flags creates unnecessary division among the Utah public.

"We should have one flag," she said. "And what this bill would do is restore it and almost do a do-over."

Thad Weiland, a member of the public who described himself as "left-leaning," said that in cases where lawmakers take an action he opposes, he has the right to mount a referendum effort and further to launch an initiative campaign. But should those efforts fail, he said, the next step would be to lick his wounds and accept the will of the people.

"The state Legislature passes bills every year that I do not like," he said. "But I trust the process."

The committee hearing was attended by a vocal group of new flag opponents, many of whom had worked to gather signatures for the unsuccessful referendum and initiative efforts. They cited Pride variations of the new design as evidence of a plot to "rainbowize" the flag and compared the so-called Beehive Flag design to a son- or daughter-in-law who enters a family and tries to change its traditions.

At multiple points, the group was reminded by the committee chairman to maintain decorum, and vocal grumbling and backtalk escalated as lawmakers' opposition to the bill became apparent, in one instance leading Rep. Melissa Garff Ballard, R-North Salt Lake, to gently scold an objector as she made an early exit.

Before leaving the hearing, Ballard remarked on the tone that new flag opponents had for years employed against its supporters, like labeling lawmakers who voted in support of creating the Beehive Flag as "Public enemy No. 1."

"I would love for you to channel your energy into how we can preserve our principals and the values that are important to us," Ballard said, "and work together against what really are public enemy No. 1."