After intense debate, Utah passed approval of a new state flag, replacing the old one consisting of the state seal on a field of blue with a unique, iconic design featuring a beehive and five-pointed star on a hexagon, set against stylized mountains in red, white, and blue.
However, reported The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday, before the flag has even officially been raised over government buildings, some right-wing activists are plotting a ballot referendum to overturn it — and the story of the opposition is more bizarre than one might expect.
"Plans are underway for a statewide ballot initiative to put a repeal of the flag change on the 2024 ballot. Organizers say they are set to file paperwork with the lieutenant governor’s office on Tuesday," reported Bryan Schott. "Instead of 40 days, organizers will have until February 15, 2024, to submit the required 134,298 signatures to qualify for the ballot. That total represents 8% of the current number of active voters in Utah. Organizers must also meet the 8% threshold in 26 of Utah’s 29 state senatorial districts. For comparison, last month’s unsuccessful referendum effort only had to hit the 8% requirement in 15 districts, but failed to meet that threshold in any district."
The effort is being led by former state Rep. Fred Cox, who is arguing that the new flag is an attempt to erase history — even though Gov. Spencer Cox issued an executive order that will keep the original flag along with the new one.
According to a Deseret News report last month, however, it goes deeper than that — some activists pushed strange conspiracy theories while protesting to lawmakers that the flag was "woke" or "Marxist," and some even invoked the QAnon child-trafficking conspiracy theory.
"'I cannot understand why someone didn’t research the eight-point star,' one woman said during a hearing on the new flag in the Senate Business and Labor Committee meeting. She apparently was referring to an earlier version. The new flag’s star has five points. 'It’s on the … floor in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and it represents the underground tunnels for child sex trafficking,' she said, spouting a false QAnon claim," reported Jay Evensen. "One man who called himself the 'persona Lady Maga USA,' said of the new flag, 'Woke, politically correct mobs are erasing history across American states.' He equated it to tearing down statues. 'In 1933, the Nazis replaced the German flag. Communists past and present assert their dominance with their flags,' he said."
A recent poll by Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics indicates that only 35 percent of voters in the state actually oppose the new flag; 48 percent support it, while 17 percent are undecided.
