- Utah's ban on most flags in public classrooms takes effect on May 7.
- The law also applies to flags flown by local governments.
- Gov. Cox criticized the bill for not finding more common ground with those opposed to prohibiting the display of pride flags.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox allowed a bill banning the display of most flags by public school teachers and government entities to become law Thursday night without his signature due to concerns that it sought a culture-war win instead of consensus.
Thursday marked the final day of the governor’s 20-day bill-review period following the legislative session which concluded on March 7. Cox vetoed a total of six bills this year, including one giving him power to select the state’s chief justice, and encouraged the Legislature to pursue wholesale reforms to criminal justice and taxes.
Cox reserved his longest message to the Legislature for HB77, Flag Display Amendments, which passed mostly along party lines and sparked multiple protests at Capitol Hill over the course of lawmakers’ seven-week legislative work window.
“H.B. 77 has been one of the most divisive bills of the session, and I am deeply disappointed that it did not land in a better place,” Cox wrote.
Promoting political neutrality in the classroom is an important goal, according to Cox. But he said the new flag law fails to fully address the use of polarizing political symbols in public schools by only applying to flags and extends too much control over municipal leaders who wish to reflect certain values to their voters.
“I deeply believe that our classrooms need to be a place where everyone feels welcome — free from the politics that are fracturing our country," Cox said. “Unfortunately, this bill does not do that.”
What does the flag bill do?
Utah’s new law, which takes effect on May 7, will prohibit government entities and public school employees acting within their “official duties” from displaying a flag on government property unless the flag is one of a dozen exceptions.
Teachers in their classrooms, and cities, counties or the state on government grounds, will only be allowed to “place a flag in a prominent location ... where the flag is easily visible” if the flag is one of the following:
- United States flag.
- Utah state flag.
- Municipal flag.
- Military flag.
- Tribal flag.
- Country flag.
- Officially licensed public university flag.
- Official public school flag.
- Olympic flag.
The bill clarifies that historical state and national flags may be displayed and that flags temporarily displayed by an organization authorized to use public schools will be allowed. Altered versions of the permitted flags will not be allowed.
The bill only applies to actual flags, not to depictions of flags, lapel pins or signs. An amendment to the bill reaffirmed that nothing in the bill removes a school’s “obligation to protect all students from discrimination.”
The state auditor will be tasked with establishing a process to investigate alleged violations of the bill. The bill requires the auditor to notify government entities of each allegation and of each allegation the auditor considers substantive.
‘A dangerous precedent’?
The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, originally applied only to classrooms and included a new cause of action for parents to sue schools that were out of compliance.
This version was based on a similar proposal that failed in the final hours of the 2024 session after coming up for a Senate vote through a controversial procedural trick.
In its second introduction to the Legislature, the bill was narrowed to the point that the state’s largest LGBTQ lobbying group, Equality Utah, declared themselves neutral. That flipped when Lee expanded the scope of the bill during its first committee hearing to include cities and counties.
“It sets a dangerous precedent that the state can silence the speech rights of local governments and makes the bill constitutionally suspect,” Equality Utah policy director Marina Lowe said Thursday in a statement to the Deseret News.
The organization took credit for the amendment reaffirming school’s obligation to protect children from discrimination and also lobbied to limit the law to just physical flags, excluding depictions of flags, such as pins, stickers or patches.
While it is not mentioned in the law, opponents said they believed it targeted the rainbow, or pride, flag that represents LGBTQ social movements.
Lee suggested on multiple occasions that this was his intent, including in a social media post where he said that Salt Lake City would only be allowed to fly a pride flag at city hall until May 7.
“We’re happy,” Lee told the Deseret News in response to Cox’s letter. “There isn’t a good reason to veto it and he knows it. Hence why he doesn’t want to go down that path.”
What were Cox’s criticisms of the bill?
But it wasn’t the intention of the bill Cox said he took issue with, it was the process which he said did not align with the state’s previous efforts to balance LGBTQ inclusion with conservative values around religion and gender.
The law will not eliminate the problem lawmakers aimed to solve, Cox argued, adding that the enforcement of political neutrality would be better addressed by the Utah State Board of Education. He said the bill might have the unintended consequence of increasing alternative political displays, like using rainbows lights on the side of a building.
Cox said he shared the view that pride flags are not necessary to accommodate certain students. But more can be done to make every student feel welcome “to exercise their own individual freedom of expression,” Cox said, expressing his appreciation for the state’s “LGBTQ community.”
“(A)s tired as Utahns are of politically divisive symbols, I think they are also tired of culture war bills that don’t solve the problems they intend to fix,” Cox said. “There are so many examples of the LGBTQ community and the conservative community coming together to find helpful and hopeful compromise. I hope we can retain this as our model and North Star.”