Nonbinary Park Ranger, Fired For Hanging Trans Flag, Sues Trump Admin
Dr. Shannon “SJ” Joslin said they were targeted for hanging a trans flag on El Capitan during off-duty hours last year.
Featured Image: via Instagram
When Dr. Shannon “SJ” Joslin, a former National Park Service (NPS) ranger, unfurled a transgender pride flag on the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite last May, they did so under assurance that if they were not on duty, they could enjoy their full First Amendment rights. They factored this into the scheduling of the display. But days after hanging the 66-foot flag (which involved other climbers, including NPS employees), despite removing the flag within hours, Joslin was put under criminal investigation. Three months later, they received a termination letter for “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct.”
Now Joslin, a biologist who studies bats, has filed a legal complaint alleging that their firing violated their First Amendment rights: “For decades, climbers at Yosemite National Park have expressed messages— political and non-political—from the iconic rock formation El Capitan (“El Cap”). Yosemite’s history is rooted in activism, and that tradition continues today. In August, however, the National Park Service (NPS), together with the Department of Justice (DOJ), broke with this tradition by targeting Plaintiff Shannon “SJ” Joslin for their speech.”
The filing claims that Joslin has experienced “medical, financial, personal, and professional harm” since they were fired last August, including lost wages and “interruption in their health insurance coverage in the face of multiple significant diagnoses (Lyme disease and thyroid condition) that require ongoing medical care.” The termination has also “caused them mental anguish for which they have incurred increased healthcare costs for mental health treatment.”
NPS, Department of Justice (DOJ), the Interior Department, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Attorney General Pam Bondi are namd as defendants in the lawsuit. The complaint alleges that their “campaign against Dr. Joslin is illegal and unconstitutional.” It also requests that Joslin be reinstated while the lawsuit proceeds, and be awarded damages of an amount “to be determined at trial but is not less than $1,000.”
“This administration is targeting Dr. Joslin because it wants to scare people into silence,” Joslin’s co-counsel Joanna Citron Day said in a release. “Dr. Joslin exercised their First Amendment rights and is being punished to send a clear message—speech the administration doesn’t like will not be tolerated. Dr. Joslin was illegally fired and should be reinstated immediately.”
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Joslin had told the AP last year, that they had acted as a private citizen. “If you’re a federal worker and you have any kind of identity that doesn’t agree with this current administration, then you must be silent, or you will be eliminated.” They added that the flag was meant to signal a message to park-goers: “We’re all safe in national parks.”
“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 said.
After the incident, Yosemite National Park updated its rulebook to ban flying flags (and combinations of flags/banners/signs) larger than 15 square feet from certain areas, including on El Capitan.
Image: Jan. 2026 letter of support from NFEE Local 465 via Instagram
In January, NFEE Local 465 (representing Yosemite, Sequoia, Yellowstone and other national parks) issued a statement to Acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron in support of Joslin and their reinstatement. The union noted that Joslin was celebrating their gender identity and caused no damage while doing so. NFEE Local 465 also supported Joslin’s “off-the-clock” choices about personal expression, and wrote that they “should not be the object of politicized scrutiny by supervisors”). The letter further states:
“Throughout our units, we are fortunate to have many supervisors who consistently demonstrate these values, leaders who respect us regardless of our differences and lead us into complex, difficult, and sometimes dangerous situations to protect both lives and public lands. Despite coming from a wide-range of political persuasions, gender/sexual identities, and other life experiences, we are able to work together as a cohesive unit in part because we trust that these distinctions will not be used to judge, reward, or punish us as employees.”
