A National Park Service employee was terminated and may be criminally charged for unfurling a trans-pride flag over El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, park officials said.
The firing has sparked an outcry from LGBTQ+ activists, who are accusing the federal government of firing the worker to silence them.
On May 20, a group of LGTBQ+ activists and climbers ascended El Capitan — an iconic vertical wall formation in Yosemite National Park — to display a 55-by-35-foot trans-pride flag to affirm transgender identity and support biological research that showed natural occurrences of sex switching in other animals, according to a news release.
Among the group were Shannon Joslin, a biologist at Yosemite, and Pattie Gonia, a prominent environmental and LGBTQ+ activist.
“Raising this flag in the heart of El Capitan is a celebration of our community, standing in solidarity with each other and all targeted groups,” said Joslin, whose pronoun is “they.” “Being trans is a natural, beautiful part of human and biological diversity.”
Joslin, 35, worked as a wildlife conservationist, statistician and chiropterologist — an expert in bats — at Yosemite since 2021. A doctoral graduate from UC Davis, they managed the Big Wall Bats program and created Yosemite climb guidebooks in addition to volunteer work, according to the release.
Two hours after the flag went up, the group was ordered by park officials to take it down. Climbers who participated said that park officials outlined no consequences after they ordered the flag removed and that the group left peacefully. Video of the demonstration shows Joslin was not in park uniform during the climb, and the news release added that they also were not on duty at the time and used no park materials to rig the flag.
But on Aug. 12, Joslin was terminated by park officials for their participation in the flag raising. The National Park Service and Department of Justice said they were pursuing administrative action and possible criminal charges against several park visitors and employees who were alleged to have “violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations” by not obtaining a permit.
“We take the protection of the park’s resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences,” said Rachel Pawlitz, chief spokesperson for the National Park Service.
The National Park Service pointed to a recent rule that the agency said went into effect the date of the incident. The rule prohibits guests or employees from hanging signs or banners over any “natural or cultural feature” in the park.
Joslin says that rule did not exist at the time, and an archive of the park’s rules five days before the incident does not include a prohibition on flags. Another archived version of the page from the following month, on June 15, includes the new flag prohibition and is dated back to May 20.
“The National Park Service rewrote the park rules to ban hanging large flags in wilderness areas, including the face of El Capitan,” the climbing group’s news release said.
Multiple flag demonstrations have taken place at Yosemite before, such as employees flying an upside-down American flag in protest of Trump administration cuts to federal funding and a “Stop the Genocide” flag hung in protest against the Israeli and U.S. governments last year in response to the war in Gaza.
“In America, our freedoms matter,” Joslin said. “Our team followed every written and unwritten rule, left no trace, and honored Yosemite’s accepted traditions.”
While not expressly banned, guests and employees must obtain a permit to display flags over the natural landscape in Yosemite, Pawlitz said.
The decision to fire Joslin sparked outrage among LGBTQ+ advocates and activists.
Gonia said in a statement that she believes the termination was a part of a broader push by the Trump administration to crack down on political demonstration and LGBTQ+ visibility.
“To strip [Shannon Joslin] of their position is not only an affront to their personal freedom but an attack on the very values of service, dedication, and community that [Joslin] embodies,” Gonia said. “This is about silencing those who oppose injustice and we must not let that happen.”
The climbing group and other activists want Joslin reinstated and demand an independent investigation into the park’s conduct and hiring practices, the release said. They have also cited President Trump’s executive order on “Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” as reason for reinstatement. The order, signed on Trump’s inauguration date, said it would “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
“My firing isn’t just about one ranger,” Joslin said. “It’s about whether everyone has the right to speak freely in the United States. This kind of targeting threatens the rights of civil servants, and by extension, all Americans, to speak freely.”
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