There was no policy prohibiting the display of flags on El Capitan until the day after Joslin and their team hung the trans flag, when the NPS issued a new rule banning the hanging of large flags in wilderness areas. Yosemite leadership updated the 2024 Superintendent’s Compendium to include the update.
“Hanging flags has been a tradition that climbers have done on El Cap for decades, and that’s both individuals who are visiting the park, but also employees that are on their off time,” Joslin said. “There’s never been any kind of ramifications to any of those flag hanging activities. I’m the only one who’s been fired for it.”
fascists dividing us
Sadly it’s often into people who value something more than their jobs, and people who just value keeping their jobs.
Just following their hearts vs just following their orders.
More like “value having income”
A record number of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and the job market is atrocious. This was all by design but it didn’t change the reality many people face.
I’m not referring to ICE and other fascists, of course.
Joslin said being fired from a federal position will hurt their ability to work for the government, or any other park, in the future. They plan to seek legal counsel to try to contest the decision, citing an executive order Trump issued on the first day of his presidency to protect free speech and end federal censorship.
“I’m going to fight this tooth and nail,” Joslin said. “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.”
I commend them for their protest, likely knowing this was on the table as an outcome. I’m sure they already had at least some concern for their job even if they didn’t protest. I feel this added attention helps their cause more than hurts it in the long term.
The Jan 6 folk have gotten their lives back, and if they can have their actions reversed, this person will too someday when everyone cut from their jobs for nothing gets that injustice reversed.
They got sacked, but it was doing something they loved with a group of people in similar situations, and protesting being mistreated and trying to protect everyone’s rights to enjoy the parks that they love and deserve to experience. That’s probably better than being fired cowardly over text or email or whatever shameful thing this administration would have done anyway. These people are such disgustingly petty individuals.
I hear even before this year that it is significantly difficult to get employed as an openly trans person, so I give my best wishes of luck to them until the time they can return to their dream job.
They will definitely win too. If they were on off time there’s no grounds for the firing. Even if they were on government time it’s still quite dubious and likely not a fireable offense.
I think we should take a moment to discuss something that plagues the NPS and allows this type of abuse to continue. The NPS hires many employees on a temporary basis. There are some parks where nearly 2/3rds of the staff are temporary or term. For all the people not familiar with federal hiring, this is terrible. These employees get very few of the employment protections offered to permanent employees. With temporary employees getting the least support. Allowing employees to easily be fired like this since temporary employees can be terminated at any time without cause per federal policy. It’s a terrible practice and takes advantage of employees. While this one has a political motivation, it’s very common for whistleblowers to also recieve this treatment in the NPS. Leaving employees with the choice between a job they love and protecting the park’s resources.
This has been going on for decades.
Edit: I just learned they were in their first year of a permanent position. Basically the only time it’s easy to fire a permanent employee as they experience reduced protections during their probationary period.
Thanks for the extra details! This country has such bad workers protection as it is.
That executive order was only for their free speech. Not yours.
