Watching from his new home in Massachusetts, Elio Kennedy-Yoon was happy.
Officials in his hometown of Salt Lake City chose to formally adopt pride, transgender and Juneteenth versions of the official sego lily city flag he helped design as a teen — an effort to comply with, but buck the intent of, a new state law that bans nonofficial flags from government property.
“It’s great that this flag, and the sego lily emblem especially, is now belonging on all of these flags of different identities,” the 22-year-old, who is trans, said in an interview. “... Despite recent legislation, we will not be erased or silenced.”
At 17, Kennedy-Yoon was a West High School student when the blue-and-white sego lily design he co-created with Arianna Meinking, then 18, was selected in 2020. At the time, Kennedy-Yoon said he hoped it would “grow to become a symbol of the kindness and community that Salt Lake City embodies.”
The Salt Lake City Council unanimously voted May 6 to adopt the three alternative designs, placing the city’s iconic sego lily symbol in the upper left corner of each.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mayor Erin Mendenhall proposes three new city flags during a meeting of the Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
The vote came just hours before the state law banning nonofficial flags from government property took effect. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, repeatedly said he created the bill to keep pride flags out of public schools; lawmakers later expanded the bill to cover all government spaces.
Kennedy-Yoon’s original Salt Lake City flag design, which he submitted in a citywide competition, featured a big blue stripe to represent the Great Salt Lake and a large white stripe to represent the salt flats. In the center was a golden hexagon with a silhouette of a bee.
The winning design was a combination of two entries — Kennedy-Yoon’s, and one that West High alum Meinking (now a Ph.D. student in physics at Duke) submitted, which featured the three-petaled sego lily.
“I love the sego lily,” Kennedy-Yoon said. “It’s really well-designed.”
When Kennedy-Yoon was attending West, he said, transitioning wasn’t the first thing on his mind. “I was really focused on getting into college, and so that’s what I did.”
“I wasn’t fully able to really explore my trans identity, or fully transition, until I went to college,” said the now-senior at Harvard, “because I was literally just focused on other things.”
He feels many people assume that trans people “only and always” think about being trans, “which is not true,” he said. “Which is why I think when trans people, children specifically, are forced into thinking about their identities in a way that makes them feel wrong or bad, that is extremely harmful.”
Growing up in Utah, he said, “I was aware that I was trans. I was aware that I was going to change my name and my pronouns, and I sort of soft-launched my transition to communities that I felt safe in, before I came out publicly.”
“I love Utah, I love Salt Lake City. I have such a deep allegiance to the place,” Kennedy-Yoon continued.
But he acknowledged he feels it’s “terrible” to be queer here. “And that’s coming from me, who is extremely privileged and who grew up with such supportive communities,” he said.
(Elio Kennedy-Yoon) Elio Kennedy-Yoon, 22, a Salt Lake City native and one of the designers of the city's official flag, performing with Din & Tonics, an a cappella group at Harvard University.
Being at Harvard made transitioning easier, he said, because Massachusetts is a blue state with a shield law that protects gender-affirming health care providers against legal action from other states. There, he also performed in an a capella group at Harvard and has earned popularity on TikTok.
On Wednesday, Kennedy-Yoon marked one year since having top surgery. At the end of this month, he’s set to graduate with a degree in biology.
Over the summer, he said he and his girlfriend plan to visit Utah “and hit some national parks.” After that, he said, he’s preparing to move to New York to pursue modeling and acting.
Earlier this month, he was in New York for a photo shoot with a Korean streetwear brand. In February, he was one of 16 performers — including trans, lesbian and nonbinary people — who appeared with musician Lucy Dacus in a video for her song “Best Guess.”
Kennedy-Yoon responded to a call-out Dacus posted on TikTok in January. “I did a silly little video submission, and her casting team ended up wanting me to be there, so I went,” he said.
If acting and modeling don’t work out, he said he would apply his biology degree to a new job. “I’m very excited to become a gardener and just exist in nature for the rest of my life,” he said.
To Utahns, particularly those who are marginalized, he said, “You are so much more than one of your identities.” Don’t let yourself be “reduced,” he added, and be “joyous.”
“Be happy as much as you can. Be safe, and uplift each other.”
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