Yosemite worker fired for hanging trans pride flag on El Capitan sues National Park Service
CBSN
A former Yosemite employee is suing the federal government for alleged unlawful termination, arguing that their dismissal last year for hanging a transgender pride flag from El Capitan violated their constitutional rights. In:
A former Yosemite employee is suing the federal government for alleged unlawful termination, arguing that their dismissal last year for hanging a transgender pride flag from El Capitan violated their constitutional rights.
Shannon "SJ" Joslin, a wildlife biologist who uses they/them pronouns, received a termination notice from the National Park Service in August, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. The firing came roughly three months after Joslin and a group of climbers draped a large, pink, blue and white striped flag — a symbol of trans pride — from the California park's most iconic rock formation.
Joslin, who was a park ranger at Yosemite for nearly five years, has said the flag was hung outside of work hours. It aimed to celebrate the transgender community amid mounting political attacks from the Trump administration, attorneys said in court filings.
"This administration is targeting Dr. Joslin because it wants to scare people into silence," Joanna Citron Day, an attorney representing Joslin, said in a statement. "Dr. Joslin exercised their First Amendment rights and is being punished to send a clear message—speech the administration doesn't like will not be tolerated."
Attorneys are looking to have Joslin immediately reinstated to the National Park Service, which is among the defendants listed in the lawsuit. Others include the park service's parent agency, the Department of the Interior, as well as the Department of Justice, and the heads of each of them.
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