Yosemite ranger fired over trans flag says Trump ‘scaring us into silence’

As the legal battle over the firing of Yosemite National Park ranger Shannon “SJ” Joslin heats up, Joslin tells The Hill that their termination is part of a broader Trump administration campaign against the transgender community and the federal workforce. 

“Yes, I lost my job for this flag. But this wasn’t the first way that the Trump administration had been scaring us into silence as federal workers,” Joslin, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said in a phone interview. “And that felt wrong, too.”

Last week, Joslin filed suit against multiple federal agencies over their National Park Service (NPS) termination last year, which came after they and a group of climbers hung a transgender pride flag on El Capitan, a rock formation in Yosemite.

Joslin hung the flag on their day off last May 20, according to a 26-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They told The Hill that unfurling flags on “El Cap” is common, with climbers drawing attention to issues such as climate change and the war in Gaza 

“There’s been no problem with hanging flags up until this point,” Joslin remarked. “It’s been something that climbers have been doing since humans have been climbing El Cap.”

The day after the demonstration, Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPhadden announced a ban on flags. Days later, NPS began investigating Joslin, including opening a criminal probe. 

Shortly thereafter, Joslin was fired, with their notice of termination, according to the lawsuit, citing “only a regulation prohibiting demonstrations outside of designated protest areas—a charge that, on information and belief, had never been applied to or enforced for conduct like” theirs.

“My immediate reaction when I was let go was just an immense sense of grief, because as someone who works in the park service, you give up a lot of what is easy and accessible in the modern-day world to live in these remote locations,” Joslin said. 

Joslin and their attorney, Joanna Citron Day, made one thing abundantly clear: They believe NPS, along with the Interior and Justice departments, violated Joslin’s First Amendment rights by terminating them. 

“SJ’s First Amendment rights have been trampled on,” said Citron Day. “They have been fired and criminally investigated and treated like a pariah.”

The Department of Justice declined The Hill’s request for comment.

“I think that if it wasn’t an identity that this administration was trying to villainize, they would allow free speech to continue,” Joslin said, referring to the transgender community. 

The complaint references a number of actions President Trump has taken with regards to transgender Americans since returning to office last year, including an executive order banning transgender people from serving openly in the military. Joslin said the president “learned” from his first term and is “actually more effective at making pieces of legislation that actively target us and affect our daily lives.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson for NPS told The Hill, “We do not comment on the specifics of personnel actions. However, we want to emphasize that 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,”

“Yosemite National Park was designated by Congress to highlight the beautiful natural and cultural features of the area,” the spokesperson continued. “No matter the cause, demonstrating without a permit 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, many demonstrations require a permit.”

Joslin said that since their firing, stress has compounded the impacts of previously diagnosed Lyme disease and a thyroid condition. They said those health effects, as well as the need to cover basic expenses, have made the last few months “really hard.”

“It’s not only my career, it’s an assault on who I am as a person,” they said.

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