Shannon ‘SJ’ Joslin worked as a biologist at Yosemite National Park
In August, Shannon “SJ” Joslin, a wildlife biologist and ranger at Yosemite National Park, lost their job after helping unfurl a massive transgender pride flag on the sheer granite face of El Capitan. In Yosemite, displaying flags on El Cap is a time-honored tradition dating back decades — used to mark moments of patriotism, protest, or grief. Joslin, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, is the first person to get fired from the park for the act. Joslin told Outside what it was like to lose their dream job.
It had been more than a week since we’d hung the flag, and I’d heard nothing but positive feedback. Then I got the email. It was from a chief ranger from a different national park who was in charge of investigating my actions.
I thought it was strange. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d hung it on my day off, with some of my climbing friends. We’d gotten the proper permit to spend the night on the wall. We’d used cams and nuts and carabiners, the same stuff big-wall climbers use, to rig the flag. And we left no trace. We took everything back down with us.
They called me into the Fort, which is where the jail is in Yosemite. And that’s presumably where all of their interrogations happen. They read me my rights. I asked if I was the subject of the criminal investigation. They said yes.
It was surreal. There’s a long history of visitors and employees hanging flags on El Cap. The employees who were associated with putting up any of the other flags didn’t get punished.
I declined to be interviewed because if you’re called in for a criminal interview, that interview is volunteered information. Then I exited the building.
I got called back again the next week for an administrative interview. Those interviews are mandatory. If you’re a federal employee, you have to comply with an administrative interview. But I did ask if I could have legal counsel present. And they said yes.
They asked me a bunch of different questions. They asked me if I left glue on the rock face, and I said that I didn’t use glue. They asked if I got monetary compensation for hanging the flag, which I did not. One of my friends who helped do it was Pattie Gonia, the drag queen and activist. They asked me if I gave Pattie Gonia the flat-brimmed hat she wore in the photos she posted on Instagram, which I did not.
They asked if I planned anything on work time, and I didn’t. And they asked a lot of questions that made a lot of assumptions. At that point, I knew what they were trying to get me on: having a demonstration outside of a First Amendment zone. So I told the investigator that I had never called it a “demonstration.” And I hadn’t. I had called it a celebration, if anything.
Then I waited. I went back to doing my work at Yosemite. I supervized the Big Wall Bat program, and I do data management for terrestrial wildlife.
In my spare time, I looked up the recommended punishment for having a demonstration in a non-First Amendment area. For a first-time offense, it’s a written reprimand. For a second-time offense, it’s a one- to five-day suspension. So in my mind, the worst that would happen to me would be a five-day suspension.
It never even occurred to me that they would fire me.
A couple months later I got the request for an in-person meeting with the acting deputy superintendent. I knew then that something serious was going to happen because deputy superintendents don’t waste their time with low-level employees like me.
I was petrified. I don’t know how much you know about park rangers, but our whole lives are our jobs. Yosemite is my home and it’s my whole identity. I’m a biologist, so I’m primarily there to support the wildlife, but I do so much more.
I write climbing guidebooks to the park, I help out with regular everyday park processes, like issuing Half Dome permits, when they’re understaffed. I’ve gotten all of these certifications — swift water rescue technician, wilderness first responder, search and rescue technician — so I can participate in as many things as possible. I’m a wildland firefighter.
My meeting was August 12. Yosemite’s acting deputy superintendent Danika Globokar handed me a termination letter for “failure to demonstrate acceptable conduct.” The investigation found that I had violated a National Park Service rule that prohibits demonstrations outside of designated park areas for First Amendment activities.
At first, I was dealing with this huge sense of loss, this emptiness. Now it’s shifted to anger. I am fighting this.
I feel like I was targeted. I feel like I was treated unfairly. I feel like this is what happens when someone who is under the trans umbrella does something that cis people do and don’t get in trouble for. But I’m non-binary and so I’m the one who gets in trouble.
It makes me upset, not only for myself, but it makes me terrified for what this country is slipping into. Today, it’s related to a trans flag. But it could be related to any flag tomorrow. And it could be related to any identity the next day, and it just keeps snowballing. Where does it stop?
