Park employee fired after trans pride display

The Yosemite biologist was with a group that hung a flag over El Capitan.

- BY CHRISTOPHER BUCHANAN

Photographs by PATTIE GONIA SHANNON JOSLIN, a biologist at Yosemite National Park, was fired after a group they were with unfurled a trans pride flag in the park.

A National Park Service employee was terminated and may be criminally charged for unfurling a trans pride flag over El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, park officials said.

The firing has sparked an outcry from LGBTQ+ activists, who are accusing the federal government of firing the worker to silence them.

On May 20, a group of LGTBQ+ activists and climbers ascended El Capitan — an iconic vertical wall formation in Yosemite National Park — to display a 55-by-35-foot trans pride flag to affirm transgender identity and support biological research that showed natural occurrences of sex switching in other animals, according to a news release.

Among the group were Shannon Joslin, a Yosemite biologist, and Pattie Gonia, a prominent environmental and LGBTQ+ activist.

"Raising this flag in the heart of El Capitan is a celebration of our community, standing in solidarity with each other and all targeted groups," said Joslin, whose pronoun is "they." "Being trans is a natural, beautiful part of human and biological diversity."

Joslin, 35, worked as a wildlife conservationist, statistician and chiropterologist (an expert in bats) at Yosemite since 2021. A doctoral graduate from UC Davis, they managed the Big Wall Bats program and created Yosemite climb guidebooks in addition to volunteer work, the release said.