A non-binary former Yosemite park ranger is suing the Department of the Interior after they were fired for hanging a transgender pride flag from the park’s famous El Capitan rock formation last year.
Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who describes themself as a non-binary bat biologist, claims that their August 2025 firing over the stunt violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.
“Constitutional rights are necessary and guaranteed for every person in the United States. This lawsuit is fighting for the rights of average people and is asserting that they don’t just exist for the individuals with the most power in this country,” Joslin told SFGATE, after filing the lawsuit on Monday.
Joslin and two other National Park Service (NPS) employees were off the clock when they scaled the iconic El Capitan rock formation in May 2025 and hung a trans pride flag.
They said they hung the flag — which was up for three hours before it was taken down — in response to President Trump’s executive order banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
“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 at the time.
Joslin was fired from Yosemite after four and a half years with the NPS following a three-month investigation, while the two other participating employees were placed on administrative leave.
The next day, the NPS banned hanging large flags in wilderness areas, with anyone ignoring the rule facing a six-month prison sentence.
The restrictions from Acting Superintendent Raymond McPadden were dated May 20, 2025, the same day as Joslin’s stunt, but weren’t signed or made public until the following day, according to the lawsuit.
NPS officials told Joslin they were “treating the incident as a criminal matter,” and that they were “under active investigation,” according to the lawsuit.
They haven’t been indicted, but the investigation is still ongoing, as far as they know.
Joslin’s complaint, filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, demands that they be rehired at Yosemite and that the right to free speech be upheld at the park via a motion for a preliminary injunction.
“My life has been overhauled by an administration that wants to take away basic constitutional rights and ruin the lives of people who think or are different from them. I won’t sit back and accept the failing of American democracy, and this lawsuit is my way of giving voice to and fighting for all federal, trans, and human rights in the United States,” Joslin told SFGATE.
Neither the NPS, the Department of the Interior, nor Yosemite National Park responded immediately to requests for comment.
