Yosemite Nationwide Park fired a park ranger final week for hanging a transgender delight flag on the park’s iconic El Capitan rock formation in Could.
Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who has been a ranger and a wildlife biologist within the park since 2021, mentioned they had been fired Aug. 12 from what they described as their dream job. They mentioned park management instructed them they “did not show acceptable conduct” of their function by taking part within the trans flag show.
“I’m devastated,” mentioned Joslin, who’s trans and makes use of they/them pronouns. “We don’t take our positions within the park service to generate income or to have any type of big profession positive aspects. We take it as a result of we love the locations that we work. I’ve a Ph.D. in bioinformatics, and I could possibly be making much more cash in Silicon Valley, which is just a few hours away, however I made profession decisions to place myself in Yosemite Nationwide Park, as a result of that is the place that I like essentially the most.”
When requested for touch upon Joslin’s termination, a spokesperson for Yosemite Nationwide Park mentioned the Nationwide Park Service, which oversees Yosemite, “is pursuing administrative motion towards a number of Nationwide Park Service staff for failing to observe Nationwide Park Service rules.” The spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a further query about which rules the workers allegedly violated. The NPS didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Joslin, who’s 35 and had been going to the park for greater than a decade previous to working there, has written Yosemite climbing guidebooks and volunteered to work time beyond regulation to assist situation climbing permits and handle visitors within the park. As a wildlife biologist, they managed the park’s “large wall bats” program, to review how bats use cliffs and defend them from a virulent disease known as white-nose syndrome.
Joslin mentioned they got here up with the thought to hold the trans delight flag on El Capitan within the spring after President Donald Trump issued quite a lot of govt orders concentrating on trans individuals, together with orders to vary the federal definition of intercourse to exclude trans identities, limit entry to trans well being care and prohibit trans ladies from competing in feminine sports activities.
Joslin mentioned the flag show, which they organized with different LGBTQ climbers and advocates and took part in outdoors of labor hours, was meant to rejoice trans individuals and present that everybody is welcome within the nation’s parks. The flag was up on El Capitan for about two hours when park officers instructed the climbers to take away it, although the climbers mentioned on the time that they weren’t instructed that that they had damaged any park guidelines.
A few week after the show, Joslin mentioned, park management instructed them they had been the topic of a felony investigation into the hanging of the flag. After that investigation, Performing Deputy Superintendent Danika Globokar fired Joslin as a consequence of their participation in what management described because the “flag demonstration,” Joslin mentioned.
Joslin mentioned they requested for proof proving that the flag show was an illustration however mentioned management didn’t present any.
In addition they cited the lengthy historical past of quite a lot of flags being flown on the rock’s face, together with by park staff. For instance, park staff flew an upside-down U.S. flag throughout Yosemite’s firefall occasion in February to protest the Trump administration’s cuts of Nationwide Park Service staff. A gaggle of activists additionally raised a “Cease the genocide” flag on El Capitan in help of Palestinians in Gaza in June 2024.
There was no coverage prohibiting the show of flags on El Capitan till the day after Joslin and their workforce hung the trans flag, when the Nationwide Park Service issued a brand new rule banning the hanging of huge flags in wilderness areas. Yosemite management up to date the 2024 Superintendent’s Compendium to incorporate the replace.
“Hanging flags has been a convention that climbers have completed on El Cap for many years, and that’s each people who’re visiting the park, but in addition staff which might be on their off time,” Joslin mentioned. “There’s by no means been any type of ramifications to any of these flag hanging actions. I’m the one one who’s been fired for it.”
Joslin mentioned two different NPS staff, together with one who works in Yosemite and one other who works in a distinct park, are below investigation for serving to to show the trans flag.
Joslin mentioned being fired from a federal place will damage their means to work for the federal government, or every other park, sooner or later. They plan to hunt authorized counsel to attempt to contest the choice, citing an govt order Trump issued on the primary day of his presidency to defend free speech and finish federal censorship.
“I’m going to battle this tooth and nail,” Joslin mentioned. “I believe that everybody as People ought to be upset about this, and it doesn’t matter who I’m or what my identification is, it is a matter of free speech.”
