Illinois could soon see a new state flag as part of a contest from the Illinois Secretary of State, which was whittled to 10 entries from nearly 5,000.

Tuesday, the Illinois Flag Commission revealed their 10 choices for the public balloting, which is set to take place in January, according to officials.

Those flags, along with previous Illinois flags and the state’s current banner, will go up for a public vote. The commission will then make their recommendations to the state’s General Assembly later in 2025, officials said.

The contest opened in September, with guidelines saying the design “must reflect the identity of Illinois. Officials said there is no limit on what colors must be used, but a loose guideline was that flag designs should have three or fewer colors.

Design elements could include natural features of the state, history and culture of the state, an announcement said. According to officials, there was no limit on flag shape or ration, but designs were subject to being edited by the commission.

Those who submitted a flag design for consideration were also required to provide an entry explaining their relationship to Illinois, as well as a description of their design.

Here are the 10 designs chosen by the commission. The descriptions and meaning behind each flag can be found here.

Photos: Illinois flag design proposals released by commission

Under provisions of SB 1818, voters will get an opportunity to choose between the flag designs published by the committee, but the final say on whether the state will adopt a new banner, and which banner will fly over the Capitol, belongs to the General Assembly.

Illinois’ current flag incorporates the state’s official seal, which was adopted in 1869. The flag itself was adopted in 1915, with a small addition of the state’s name added in 1970, according to the Flag Commission’s website.

Numerous states have adopted new flags in recent years, including Minnesota, who designed and unveiled a new banner in 2024.

Mississippi and Utah have also unveiled new flags, though other states have made minor changes to their designs or have codified specific standards for their banners.

Rankings of state flags have routinely put Illinois on the lower end of the list, with critics pointing to the state’s use of the official seal rather than a unique design.

CHICAGO (WGEM) – Illinois lawmakers are looking for new ways to help people struggling with behavioral health issues in the state. Tuesday, the state House Mental Health and Addiction Committee held a hearing in Chicago looking into psychedelics as a potential treatment tool.

“We are in the midst of a behavioral health crisis in this country and in this state. And that includes mental health, it includes addiction, it includes an urgent need for trauma support,” said state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, the committee’s chair.

This isn’t the first committee hearing. Lawmakers have already held subject matter hearings on the state’s behavioral health care shortage and how to spend opioid settlement dollars to increase access to care.

Tuesday, they discussed a less traditional form of care, psychedelic drugs. The specifically talked about psilocybin, which is also known as “magic mushrooms.”

“Psychedelic medicines work in a completely different manner than traditional meds. When we look at psychedelic medicines, they really have two prongs of how they approach. One is a psychological benefit, and one is a medical benefit,” said Dr. Abid Nazeer, a psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director for Hopemark Health.

He said psilocybin allows people to look at their previous trauma or at themselves in a new light allowing them to potentially reframe their trauma and get to the root cause.

There are bills in both the state House and Senate to legalize psilocybin for medical purposes. Known as the Illinois Compassionate Use and Research of Entheogens (CURE) Act, it would create a state-regulated psilocybin program allowing licensed facilitators to provide supervised therapy.

“Those with mental health issues deserve better. They deserve more than what they’ve been given, and they deserve hope. And we, as providers, researchers, government officials, policy makers, have a responsibility to our part in advancing new and promising treatment options for them,” said Dr. Jessica Punzo, a clinical psychologist.

The drug would remain illegal for recreational use.

Two states, Oregon and Colorado, have legalized psilocybin for supervised use.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies psilocybin as a Schedule I drug, which it defines as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The FDA, however, granted the drug “breakthrough therapy” status.

Copyright 2024 WGEM. All rights reserved.