A Yosemite National Park ranger was fired for breaking a rule that didn’t exist until after an act was committed Shannon “SJ” Joslin, a ranger and biologist who studies bats, hung a 66-foot transgender pride flag, while off duty, across Yosemite’s El Capitan on May 20, to celebrate Pride Month.
However, despite voluntarily taking the flag down two hours later, Joslin’s celebration was seen as unacceptable conduct in the eyes of their superiors. Just last week, Joslin, who identifies as nonbinary, was fired.
But the reasoning behind their termination didn’t exist until after they had already hung the flag.
According to a screenshot posted to Instagram, Superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve Ray McPadden signed a rule into effect the day Joslin was fired stating that flags could not be hung from the mountainside of El Capitan. But upon closer inspection, McPadden had actually signed the rule the day after Joslin was let go, backdating it to fit in with the backlash.
“I was really hurting because there were a lot of policies coming from the current administration that target trans people, and I’m nonbinary,” Joslin told The Associated Press, adding that hanging the flag was a way to say “We’re all safe in national parks.”
Other employees of the national park who attended the flag hanging are under investigation as well.
El Capitan has a long history of visitors hanging flags from its mountainside without punishment. But this comes on the back of the Trump administration’s full frontal attack toward protests and ideologies that don’t fit in their box.
According to the AP, the National Park Service has started cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department to go after workers and visitors who may have allegedly used federal land to demonstrate in a way that violated rules. While national parks have what are called First Amendment areas allowing groups of under 25 to demonstrate their views, according to a NPS official, El Capitan does not fall under that category.
“Earlier in [2025], several unauthorized demonstrations involving El Capitan generated numerous complaints from visitors,” Acting Public & Congressional Affairs Program Manager Scott Clemans said in a statement to Daily Kos. “Yosemite National Park was designated by Congress to highlight the beautiful natural and cultural features of the area. No matter the cause, displaying signs, banners, and flags outside of designated First-Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience and the protection of the park. To safeguard the protection of visitors, visitor experiences, and park resources, most demonstrations require a permit.”
Protesters flooded national parks in March when President Donald Trump’s sweeping job cuts began to take hold across the federal workforce. It’s unclear if the president’s DOJ intends to target those disgruntled workers or if the target is specifically that of the LGBTQ+ community.
Then again, the president and his watch dogs have been steadily targeting LGBTQ+ people within the federal workforce, including the military, since taking office as well.
Daily Kos followed up with Clemans to ask about who the NPS was specifically targeting in regards to protests, but we did not receive a response before publishing this article. According to ABC News, however, “Joslin said a group of seven climbers including two other park rangers hung the flag. The other rangers are on administrative leave pending an investigation.”
