Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who identifies as nonbinary, was a biologist researching bats and other wildlife in Yosemite National Park. After a year fraught with relentless attacks on the trans community by the Trump administration, Joslin and a team of their friends decided to hang a trans pride flag on Yosemite’s famous El Capitan cliff. On May 20, 2025, Joslin’s employment was terminated by the Trump administration.
After they were fired, Joslin sued the Department of the Interior, a case that was dismissed by the federal court representing the Eastern District of California. The court argued that even though the existing Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) on protecting federal employees from discrimination does not actually “deny any judicial forum” to federal employees suing the government on discrimination charges, the district court couldn’t handle Joslin’s discrimination case because the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on if the CSRA “denies a judicial forum to employees on a trial period” like Joslin.
Joslin details the investigations they’ve been under in an interview with journalist Jayne Moye. Joslin alleges that they were under a series of criminal and administrative investigations. The administrative investigation tried to dismiss Joslin on the grounds of performing a demonstration in a non-First Amendment zone of the park, an offense that is usually punished with written reprimands and short-term suspensions before firings are considered. Eventually, Joslin was fired by the acting deputy superintendent of Yosemite National Park. One day after the firing, a rule was added to the Yosemite Superintendent’s Compendium that bans flags and displays over fifteen square feet in area from areas outside of designated First Amendment zones without prior permission.
Joslin was well known in the Yosemite community for their management of the Big Wall Bat Project, a project monitoring bat roosting sites on Yosemite’s cliffs. Bats are important controllers of the populations of many pest species, so disruptions to a program monitoring the habitat health of the local bat species could jeopardize the livelihoods of farmers in the Yosemite area.
Yosemite National Park has previously hosted flags saying “I Love Mom,” and “Stop the Genocide.” President of the Yosemite Climbing Association, Ken Yager, expressed concern about local law enforcement “having to start enforcing” a ban on flags in El Capitan.
Environmentalist and LGBTQ activist Patti Gonia also criticized the firing, saying that Joslin is a “respected pillar within the Yosemite community” whose contributions to the park “consistently goes above and beyond.”
Since the start of the current administration, government employees have been embroiled in a campaign against Trump’s mass firings in the public sector. Major government employee unions have condemned the Trump regime’s anti-public sector campaign, including the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents National Park Service employees like Joslin. To fight the union-busting efforts, the National Federation of Federal Employees Local 465 is sending delegations to Congress to detail the impacts of Trump’s policies on the National Park Service, including employees such as Joslin.
Additionally, Joslin stated at the 2025 Out100 gala by Out Magazine that no matter how much the administration tries to fire and keep queer people out of national parks, “we will keep fighting with love and compassion and community” until victory.
Joslin will be featured in a film called Big Wall Bats to chronicle their experience with the Big Bat Wall Project and fighting discrimination from the NPS called Big Wall Bats.
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