The correct way to hang the new Utah state flag vertically
In 2023, the Utah Legislature voted to create a new state flag. I served on a couple of the committees involved in the year-long public comment process. I’m pleased with the outcome of the process and design of the new state flag, which will become official in March 2024.
For Pioneer Day 2023, I’m hanging the new flag from our front porch. As I searched the internet, I couldn’t find one source to say how the flag should hang vertically.
The sources I found all stated that the U.S. flag, when hung vertically, hangs with the blue field of white stars on the viewer’s left.
So, following the same rationale, the new Utah state flag should hang vertically with the blue on the viewer’s left.
I’m no vexillologist, but I worked with some on the new Utah state flag committee. That sounds like a drug commercial where an actor says, “I’m no doctor, but I play one on TV.” LOL!
I tried hanging the flag with the blue on the viewer’s right. But the more I thought about it, and the instructions for the U.S. flag to hang vertically with the blue in the viewer’s top left, the more I became convinced that’s the right way to hang Utah’s new flag, with the blue on the viewer’s left.
Please comment on this post if anyone wants to weigh in on the correct way to hang the new Utah state flag vertically.
Flags with a canton or quarters are always flipped when placed vertically because the canton or first quarter is the position of honor, so keeping it at top left maintains the honor. Some (but not all) horizontally striped flags are also reversed, so that the order of the stripes is maintained. Modern flags that are more stylized follow this practice (e.g. Arizona).
On the other hand, flags with text are almost always rotated without being reversed, so that the text remains legible (Missouri rotates to the left to maintain stripe order). Flags with asymmetrical charges like animals often rotate to maintain the orientation of the charge (e g. Wales, Sri Lanka, California rotate to the right). And many flags with charges, arms or text have special vertical variants that rotate those elements so they remain right-side up on a vertical flag.
It seems like the right thing for Utah is what you did, maintaining “stripe” order–even if it means you have to hold your nose to do something the same way as Arizona. But in your specific case I would just mount a flagpole on one of those support colums.