A disabled and nonbinary wildlife biology researcher is considering filing a wrongful termination lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS) after the federal agency recently fired them for hanging a large transgender Pride flag from the El Capitan rock formation in California’s Yosemite National Park last May. The hanging wasn’t illegal and didn’t break any park rules at the time, though the park’s superintendent has since forbidden such displays.
SJ Joslin, the 35-year-old lead organizer of the May action, was fired through an August 12 letter from acting Yosemite Deputy Superintendent Danika Globokar for “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” during Joslin’s two-year probationary period as an NPS worker. Globokar’s letter said that Joslin had held a “small group demonstration in an area outside of the designated protest and demonstration area without a permit,” Joslin told Them.
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However, the aforementioned publication noted that NPS rules allow demonstrations of fewer than 25 people to take place anywhere in a park without a permit, unless otherwise noted in a park’s “Superintendent’s Compendium.” Joslin requested evidence that May 20 action was a demonstration, but park leadership reportedly failed to provide any such proof, NBC News reported.
Joslin and their cohorts displayed a 55 x 35 foot trans Pride flag about 500 feet high on El Capitan’s “Heart Ledges” area between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. PST on May 20. Joslin told Them they didn’t view the flag’s display as a “demonstration,” but rather a “celebration of my identity and just trans identity in general.” Joslin also told NBC News that the flag was meant to show that everyone is welcome in the nation’s park.
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NBC News wrote that Joslin came up with the idea of hanging the flag after the nation’s president signed various executive orders seeking to deny the existence of trans people, restrict their access to gender-affirming care, and ban trans women from playing sports.
A week after the May 20 action, the park’s leadership informed Joslin that they and two other NPS employees were under criminal investigation for hanging the flag. Joslin said that the hanging of the flag didn’t occur during their work hours and said that their colleagues have never made any negative comments about their conduct.
The day after the action, Yosemite acting supervisor Ray McPadden updated the park’s compendium to forbid the display of “any banner, flag, or sign larger than fifteen square feet” from any of the park’s “natural or cultural feature[s]” without a permit. However, this rule wasn’t in place on the day that Joslin and their group displayed the flag.
“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 said. “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.”
Joslin told Them that they’re consulting with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit group advocating for environmental workers, and may file a wrongful termination lawsuit. Joslin had been managing a park research project examining how rock climbers may contribute to the spread of white-nose syndrome, a disease that’s lethal to local bat populations.
Regarding their firing, Joslin told Them, “I’m going to fight this as hard as I can, because to me, this isn’t a matter of politics. This is a matter of fundamental rights and the rights that we’re given through the Constitution… those rights have been taken away from me because they don’t support the current administration’s ideology.”
“I think that everyone as Americans should be upset about this,” they added. “It doesn’t matter who I am or what my identity is, this is a matter of free speech.”
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