Yosemite National Park Employee Fired After Hanging Trans Pride Flag

A Yosemite National Park employee was fired after hanging a transgender pride flag earlier this year.

Shannon “SJ” Joslin, 35, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said they were fired from their job as a permanent park ranger with the National Park Service on Tuesday, Aug. 12, according to The New York Times and SFGATE.

In a post on Instagram, Joslin said they were fired by park leadership for “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” as a wildlife biologist for the park when they helped hang the flag on the El Capitan rock formation in May.

Joslin claimed they hung the flag “that celebrated my acceptance of my identity” during their “free time, off-duty, as a private citizen” — and that it was flown “for a total of two hours in the morning” before being taken down.

“El Capitan has had flags hung on it for decades and no one has EVER been punished for it. Only me” Joslin wrote, going on to state that in over four years with the park, “no one, in any of my roles has EVER had negative comments about my conduct.”

Park officials reportedly ordered the flag to come down, according to SFGATE.

Joslin said the idea to hang the trans pride flag came after President Donald Trump issued numerous executive orders targeting trans people shortly after taking office for a second term, according to NBC News. The goal of the demonstration, Joslin said, was to celebrate trans people.

On May 21, Danika Globokar, the park’s acting deputy superintendent, signed a new rule outlawing the display of large flags, banners and signs at El Capitan, according to the Times. The ban, which was featured in a Park Service compendium of regulations that dated May 20, went into effect after several protests at El Capitan made headlines.

Joslin was fired with less than one month left in their two-year probationary period, according to the Times. The former park employee believes they are being used by the Trump administration “to tell all of the other federal employees that they have to be silent and comply or they will be eliminated.”

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

NPS spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz said on Monday, Aug. 18 that they were “pursuing administrative action against several Yosemite National Park employees and possible criminal charges against several park visitors who are alleged to have violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations,” but would not comment on specifics, according to NBC News.

Pawlitz went on to say that as most demonstrations require a permit, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California “is evaluating possible criminal charges based on a National Park Service investigation.”

The NPS did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Joslin told NBC News that they learned they were subject to a criminal investigation about a week after they hung the flag — and the investigation culminated with Joslin’s firing.

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Joslin told NBC News that being fired from this position will have a significant impact on their ability to get a job with the government or a park in the future.

“I’m going to fight this tooth and nail,” said Joslin, who plans to take legal action. “I think that everyone as Americans should be upset about this, and it doesn’t matter who I am or what my identity is, this is a matter of free speech.”