Trans Flag at Yosemite, SJ Joslin – Photos: Instagram
SJ Joslin, a nonbinary wildlife biologist with the National Park Service, has been fired after joining six others — including environmental activist and drag queen Pattie Gonia — in hanging a 55-by-35-foot transgender Pride flag from Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan rock formation. The flag, which flew for about two hours on May 20, drew national attention, reports Them.
Hired in 2021 to lead Yosemite’s Big Wall Bats Program — which studies how climbers may spread fungal infections among native bats — Joslin later became the park’s wildlife data scientist. They say they were officially terminated on August 12 in a letter from acting deputy superintendent Danika Globokar.
In an Instagram post, Joslin said Globokar’s letter cited “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” during their probationary period — the trial phase before an employee is offered a permanent position.
Because Joslin was hired under the federal “Schedule A” authority for workers with disabilities during heightened COVID-19 restrictions, they were still within a two-year probationary period set to end in September. Unlike most employees, who serve a one-year probation, disabled workers under Schedule A face a two-year term.
Joslin argued in their post that they had done nothing wrong, noting the flag-hanging took place on their own time, as a private citizen.
“No part of hanging the flag was done on work time,” Joslin wrote. “NOTHING about it had anything to do with my work.”
Joslin noted on Instagram that flags have been hung from El Capitan before without consequences. In June 2024, Climbers for Palestine displayed a banner reading “Stop the Genocide” to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. That February, six demonstrators hung an upside-down U.S. flag to protest mass federal layoffs and a hiring freeze under the Trump administration.
“Hanging flags has been a tradition that climbers have done on El Cap for decades, and that’s both individuals who are visiting the park, but also employees that are on their off time,” Joslin told NBC News. “There’s never been any kind of ramifications to any of those flag hanging activities. I’m the only one who’s been fired for it.”
“I’m not exactly sure why our group hanging a flag was any different than other groups hanging flags and why we’re being targeted, other than the obvious difference of what the flag was,” Joslin told Them. “I’m hoping to get some clarity on how exactly they justified that this was a demonstration that warrants termination.”
Joslin is considering filing a wrongful termination lawsuit.
“This isn’t a matter of politics — this is a matter of fundamental rights and the rights that we’re given through the Constitution,” Joslin said. “It doesn’t matter what flag I flew… It doesn’t matter who I am or what my identity is, this is a matter of free speech.”
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An Islamic court in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province -- which enforces Sharia law -- sentenced two men to 80 lashes each for hugging and kissing, acts the court deemed "sexual." The closed-door trial at the Islamic Shariah District Court in Banda Aceh was opened to the public only for the verdict.
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