Stars and strife: Who gets to decide what appears on state flags?
When Stephen Handy took his family to cheer on his Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl, he spotted something as exciting as a Hail Mary pass before the game even started. Leading the team onto the field was Utah’s new state flag – a banner featuring dark blue mountains, a red canyon stripe, and a large yellow beehive.
“I said, ‘Wow, that is so great,’” Mr. Handy recalls of the January 2023 game in Pasadena, California. “I mean, it was visible. You could see it. It represented Utah to me. It said something.”
Mr. Handy should know something about Utah’s new flag, which was slated to be officially
