A transgender visibility flag has returned to Salt Lake City Hall, bringing a bright splash of pink, blue and white to the start of Transgender Awareness Week. The Sego Visibility Flag pairs those colours with the city’s sego lily emblem. Its official status matters in Utah, where state law limits which flags government bodies can display.
Essential Takeaways
- The flag is back: Salt Lake City raised the Sego Visibility Flag outside City Hall for the second time.
- It has a local emblem: The design combines transgender Pride colours with the Salt Lake City sego lily.
- Official status matters: Utah law permits certain municipal flags on government property, so the city adopted the design as a city flag.
- Three designs joined the original: In May 2025, the City Council adopted three additional flags, including designs for LGBTQIA residents and Juneteenth.
- The observance continues: Transgender Awareness Week runs from 13 to 19 November, followed by Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November.
A flag with a message at City Hall
The Sego Visibility Flag’s pink, blue and white stripes are an unmistakable burst of colour against the city’s official setting. Salt Lake City raised it outside City Hall to mark Transgender Awareness Week, in a ceremony that also carried a direct message of welcome.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the flag tells transgender Salt Lakers that they are loved and wanted in the city. Fane Harris, operations coordinator for Project Rainbow Utah, spoke about the hostility transgender people face, while also recognising the joy of seeing people live authentically, ABC4’s report republished by AOL said.
Why official city status matters
The flag’s civic identity isn’t just a design detail. Utah House Bill 77 limits the flags government entities may display, with exemptions that include flags representing a city or other political subdivision. The legislation also restricts changes to the colours, symbols or appearance of flags covered by those exemptions.
Salt Lake City adopted additional designs as official city flags, allowing them to sit within the municipal category. The city said the decision was made while working within the law’s constraints and continuing to express its civic values.
Three new designs, one shared emblem
On 6 May 2025, the City Council adopted three additional flags alongside the traditional Sego Lily Flag. The Sego Visibility Flag represents transgender residents, the Sego Belonging Flag represents LGBTQIA residents, and the Sego Celebration Flag recognises Juneteenth and the city’s Black and African American residents, according to the city’s announcement.
Each of the new designs carries a sego lily in an upper corner. Salt Lake City’s flag page describes the emblem as a marker of the designs’ connection to the city, while the Visibility Flag’s stripes represent men, women and people who are non-binary, intersex, transitioning or otherwise gender nonconforming.
A week for visibility, followed by remembrance
The annual observance runs from 13 to 19 November, with Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November. Project Rainbow Utah says the week combines visibility, education, celebration, advocacy and solidarity, while the remembrance day honours transgender people lost to anti-transgender violence.
That sequence gives the flag-raising both a celebratory and a reflective note. Visibility can be a simple gesture, but a public symbol also says something about who is welcome in a shared civic space.
What happened to the later proposal?
Utah lawmakers revisited flag rules in 2026 through HB 302. KSL reported that the proposal would have treated City Hall differently from places such as schools and airports, allowing certain additional flags at city halls while restricting them in other settings.
The bill passed the House but did not become law. Its progress shows that the balance between local expression and statewide rules remained contested, even after Salt Lake City had adopted its designs as official municipal flags.
A flag can’t settle every debate, but it can make a city’s welcome visible.
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