California park ranger fired after helping paste transgender pride flag on popular Yosemite monolith

A non-binary park ranger was fired by Yosemite National Park after they were caught hanging a transgender pride flag from the park’s famous El Capitan rock formation in May.

Shannon “SJ” Joslin, 35, was first hired as a ranger and wildlife biologist at the park in 2021 — their dream job that they said was stripped away in a violation of their First Amendment right.

Joslin claimed that a temporary deputy superintendent fired them on Aug. 12 for “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” within their capacity as a wildlife biologist for the park.

“I want my rights and I want my career back,” Joslin wrote on Instagram.

Joslin noted that they hung the flag in their “free time, off-duty, as a private citizen.”

“NOTHING about it had anything to do with my work,” they fumed.

Joslin highlighted all that they’ve done for the National Parks Service over the years, including willingly stacking overtime hours and accepting a lower-paying job when they could easily be “making a lot more money in Silicon Valley” with their bioinformatics PHD.

“I’m devastated. We don’t take our positions in the park service to make money or to have any kind of huge career gains. We take it because we love the places that we work,” Joslin told NBC News.

The axed ranger said that the inspiration for their stunt came in the spring after President Trump issued an executive order barring 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.

The flag only flew for two hours before park officials ordered climbers to remove it, never once mentioning any overt violations that it posed, Joslin told NBC News.

The day after their stunt, the NPS issued a new rule banning the hanging of large flags in wilderness areas.

Then, a week later, Joslin said a criminal investigation into the flag’s display was launched. Their firing came at the end of the three-month investigation.

Joslin asserted that they — and two other NPS employees under investigation for helping hang the flag — are the only people to ever be punished for draping a flag on El Capitan.

The NPS, however, is apparently working on “pursuing administrative action against multiple National Park Service employees for failing to follow National Park Service regulations,” a spokesperson for Yosemite National Park told the outlet.

The spokesperson did not elaborate on what regulations the employees allegedly violated.

A spokesperson for the NPS added that it is currently taking administrative actions against several employees and even “possible criminal charges against several park visitors who are alleged to have violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations” in tandem with the Justice Department.

The Post reached out to the NPS for comment.

Joslin plans on fighting the park’s decision through the use of an executive order penned on Trump’s inauguration seeking to restore the First Amendment and “end federal censorship.”

The NPS is a government bureau within the US Department of the Interior overseen by former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

“Preservation has been my life’s work—of Yosemite, the wildlife, the land, recreation, of peoples rights and safety, of community and acceptance, and now the Constitutional First Amendment,” Joslin wrote.