Utah bill would ban Pride flags in public schools but allow Nazi flags for educational use
A Republican lawmaker in Utah has proposed new legislation that would restrict the display of flags on government property to only certain approved flags. According to this proposal, Pride flags would be banned from being displayed in public schools and government buildings, while Nazi and Confederate flags could still be permitted for “educational purposes.”
Utah Rep. Trevor Lee, representing an area about 20 miles from Salt Lake City, proposed the bill that initially only applied to schools. An updated version of the proposed legislation was released Thursday before a House Education Committee hearing expanding the restrictions on flags to all government buildings.
According to the amended bill, the approved flags include the Utah state and U.S. flags, military flags, other countries’ flags, flags for Native American tribes and official flags for colleges and universities. The legislation would also allow for the use of a “historic version of a flag ... that is temporarily displayed for educational purposes,” which Lee said during the hearing would include the Confederate and Nazi flags.
“We are starting to see increasingly more hostile-type interactions between different political factions that we have within our society, and that is no different than what we’re starting to see a lot within our education system,” Lee told the committee on Thursday. “Our schools should be a place for children to learn, to not feel like they are being pushed or seen as agendas in one way other another as it pertains to political beliefs.”
Paste BN contacted Lee on Friday, who suggested reading the bill and watching the committee hearing to answer any questions.
House Education Committee voted favorably for Lee’s bill
When Lee introduced the bill in January, he said on X that his legislation “would ban Pride flags from schools” and allow parents to sue their child’s school district if the law is violated. On Thursday, he confirmed to the committee that Nazi and Confederate Flags would be included in the approved flags when applicable.
“There are instances where in classrooms, you have curriculum that is needed to use flags such as World War II, Civil War,” he said. “You may have a Nazi flag. You may have a Confederate flag, and so you are allowed to display those flags for the purpose of those lesson plans. If it is part of the curriculum, then that is OK.”
The amended bill will be heard on the full House floor after the committee voted favorably, with the committee’s two Democrats — Reps. Sahara Hayes and Carol Moss — casting the only “nays.”
Following the hearing, Lee spoke with the Salt Lake Tribune and denied saying that a Nazi flag could be displayed, arguing that putting up such flags would not be allowed under his bill.
”There is a difference between displaying flags in curriculum when you’re teaching on them,” Lee said, per the Salt Lake, Utah-based outlet. “You don’t censor history here. That’s not what we’re doing.”
‘You will have queer blood on your hands’
Millie Dworkin, a senior at Salt Lake Center for Science Education, opposed Lee’s bill during the public testimony part of the hearing, saying, “This ban is unconstitutional and only serves as a means of control over the people.”
“You all argue semantics, but you all know this is wrong and immoral,” Dworkin said. “Queer people commit suicide at a higher rate than everybody else. … This is not because they are inherently prone to commit suicide due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is because of how they are treated. If you pass this, you will have queer blood on your hands.”
Roughly 6-8% of Utah adults identified as members of the LBGTQ community in 2023, the Salt Lake Tribune reported, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Public Religion Research Institute and UCLA’s Williams Institute. This percentage would have equated to about 147,000 to 196,000 Utah adults.