Salt Lake City raised its transgender Sego Visibility Flag outside City Hall on Friday, Nov. 13, marking the start of Transgender Awareness Week. It was the second time the flag had flown there, ABC4 reported.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall used the ceremony to deliver a direct message to trans residents.
“It means that we love our trans Salt Lakers, and we want you here,” she said.
The flag combines the blue, pink and white stripes of the transgender Pride flag with Salt Lake City’s sego lily emblem. Its status as an official city flag allows the city to fly it under an exception in Utah’s flag restrictions.
Why the City-Flag Exemption Matters
Utah’s HB 77 restricts flags displayed on government property to a list of permitted categories. The law does not name Pride flags, but they are not among its general exceptions.
One exception covers flags representing a city, municipality, county or other political subdivision. The law also bars altering the colors, symbols or appearance of an otherwise exempt flag.
Salt Lake City’s response was to formally adopt additional city flags. That made the Sego Visibility design a municipal flag in its own right, alongside its message of trans inclusion.
The Three Sego Flags Adopted in 2025
The City Council adopted three additional designs on May 6, 2025, bringing the total to four. They joined the existing blue-and-white Sego Lily Flag.
The Sego Visibility Flag represents transgender residents. The Sego Belonging Flag celebrates the LGBTQIA community, while the Sego Celebration Flag honors Juneteenth and Black and African American residents.
Each design carries the sego lily in its upper corner. The city said the shared emblem identifies the flags specifically with Salt Lake City.
A Later Attempt to Narrow the Rules Failed
Lawmakers revisited the issue in 2026 with HB 302. The proposal would have limited which city flags could appear at certain public facilities while allowing additional designs at City Hall, KSL reported.
The House passed the measure, but it did not become law. The legislative history records the Senate striking its enacting clause on March 6 and its placement in the file for bills not passed.
Visibility, Belonging and Remembrance
Fane Harris, operations coordinator for Project Rainbow Utah, also spoke at Friday’s ceremony. Harris addressed the physical and political hostility trans people face, while emphasizing the joy of seeing people live authentically, ABC4 reported.
Mendenhall described the flag’s formal adoption as an enduring place for trans residents in the capital’s history.
Transgender Awareness Week runs Nov. 13–19. It is followed by Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, which honors people lost to anti-trans violence.
The traditional trans Pride flag behind the city’s design is one of the LGBTQ+ flags explained in Gayety’s guide.
