A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit brought by a Yosemite national park ranger who was booted from his position after flying a large transgender pride flag from a rock wall that looms over the main thoroughfare of the California park. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled on Friday that Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, must abide by the process outlined in the Civil Service Reform Act.
Since Joslin was still in her probationary period when she was fired in 2025, she must file a complaint with the office of special counsel, which is a course of action she has already taken. The office of special counsel shot down Joslin’s initial request to pause her termination while conducting an investigation into whether the Park Service violated the law. A final determination is scheduled to be made in August.
Joslin, a biologist with a special focus on bats, admitted to helping hang a 66ft transgender pride flag on El Capitan for a total of two hours on May 20, 2025, before voluntarily taking it down. When speaking with the Associated Press, Joslin said that hanging the flag was her way of saying, “We’re all safe in national parks.” The ranger failed to explain why anyone from the LGBTQ community would feel unsafe in the park.
According to a report from The Guardian, the termination letter Joslin received in August 2025 accused her of “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” and then cited the flag incident. “You participated in a small group demonstration in an area outside the designated protest and demonstration area without a permit … and thus circumvented rules applicable to all park visitors,” the letter explained.
The report stated that many national parks have specific sections set aside as “first amendment areas” where small groups of 25 or less can protest without needing to have a permit. Yosemite has several of those places, including one in Yosemite Valley, where El Capitan is located. Not long after being terminated, Joslin did what most left-wing activists do in such situations: got on social media.
“I hung the flag in my free time, off-duty, as a private citizen. It flew for a total of two hours in the morning and then I took it down. El Capitan has had flags hung on it for decades and no one has EVER been punished for it,” she wrote on her Instagram account. “I want my rights and I want my career back.” In her lawsuit, Joslin accuses the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and other defendants of violating her right to free speech, amongst other constitutional violations.
The lawsuit calls Joslin’s termination “vindictive, retaliatory, intended to communicate disapproval of a particular point of view.” In her suit, Joslin slams the Trump administration for alleged hostilities toward the transgender community, citing the rollback of protections for transgender individuals, the Department of War’s ban on transgender service members, and more.
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“In her Friday ruling, Thurston acknowledged that the procedure for challenging a termination set out in federal civil service rules leaves probationary employees like Joslin with very limited recourse when a decision goes against them. But the judge noted that allowing probationary employees to take complaints directly to the courts would give them more options than tenured employees have,” The Guardian reported.
Thurston’s ruling, however, did not address Joslin’s accusation that her right to free speech had been violated by her termination. “The motion to dismiss Joslin’s employment-related claims and requests for relief is granted without leave to amend, but also without prejudice to any future litigation in an appropriate venue,” the judge said.