Lawsuit by the Yosemite ranger fired after hanging a giant transgender flag is dismissed

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Lawsuit by the Yosemite ranger fired after hanging a giant transgender flag is dismissed

2026-06-15 03:39 Last Updated At：03:50

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a former Yosemite National Park ranger who was fired after flying a giant transgender pride flag from a rock wall that looms over the California park's main thoroughfare.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston found on Friday that Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronoun they, must follow the process set out by the Civil Service Reform Act. Since Joslin was still a probationary employee at the time of their firing last year, that means they must file a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, which they have done.

The Office of Special Counsel denied Joslin's initial request to put their termination on hold while investigating whether the Park Service broke the law, according to court filings. A final determination is due in August.

Joslin, a biologist who studied bats, said they helped hang a 66-foot (20-meter) wide transgender pride flag on El Capitan for about two hours on May 20, 2025, before taking it down voluntarily. Joslin hung the flag on their day off, not while they were on duty.

They told The Associated Press last year that hanging the flag was their way of saying, “We’re all safe in national parks.”

Joslin's termination letter, received in August 2025, accused them of “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” and 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 stated.

Many parks have designated “First Amendment areas” where groups of 25 or fewer people can protest without permits. Yosemite has several of those areas, including one in Yosemite Valley, where El Capitan is located.

Joslin's lawsuit accuses the National Park Service, the Department of Interior and other defendants of constitutional violations, including violating Joslin’s right to free speech. It says Joslin's termination was "vindictive, retaliatory, intended to communicate disapproval of a particular point of view,” according to court filings. While others have flown flags on El Capitan, Joslin says they know of no one else who has been punished for it.

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.

A day after Joslin's flag display, the park instituted a rule prohibiting people from hanging banners, flags or signs larger than 15 square feet in park areas designated as “wilderness” or “potential wilderness.” That covers 94% of the park, according to Yosemite’s website.

The rule followed another high-profile demonstration from February 2025 when a group of demonstrators hung an upside down American flag on El Capitan to protest the firing of National Park Service employees by President Donald Trump's administration.

Joslin issued a statement saying they have dedicated their life to caring for Yosemite National Park. “So it doesn’t matter if it takes months or years to get back to working for Yosemite and the people who want to visit the park, I will fight as long as I have to.”

World Cup what to know: Mexico kicks off a supersized, 48-team tournament

After years of preparation, a supersized World Cup has finally arrived.

This year's tournament — which is hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico — was expanded to 48 teams that will play in 16 stadiums in a record 104 matches over the 39-day tournament.

Mexico gets the World Cup started Thursday and will be a heavy favorite when it hosts South Africa in Mexico City. The second game of the day will be between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico. All four teams are part of Group A.

Canada and the United States will host their first games Friday. The Canadians will play Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto while the Americans face Paraguay in Inglewood, California.

Fox is the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of the World Cup with all 104 matches in English on Fox or FS1. All matches are also available on the Fox One app. Telemundo and Universo will broadcast all of the matches in Spanish. Peacock is the streaming home for Spanish language broadcasts while Telemundo also has an app that includes all the matches.

Boosted by a home crowd and a star-studded opening ceremony with performances that include Andrea Bocelli and homegrown talent like Alejandro Fernández and Maná, Mexico hopes to play better in this World Cup than in 2022, when it failed to advance out of the group stage for the first time since 1978. El Tri will be led by veteran Raúl Jiménez and 17-year-old midfielder Gilberto Mora. Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa will be competing in the World Cup for a record sixth time. South Africa is playing in its fourth World Cup and first since it hosted the tournament in 2010.

The games in Mexico will be played at high elevation. The Azteca stadium in Mexico City is at roughly 7,300 feet while Guadalajara sits at 5,138 feet, meaning visiting teams will have to make a significant adjustment to the altitude.

South Korea is one of the best teams in Asia and has qualified for 11 tournaments in a row since 1986. The Koreans made it to the round of 16 in 2022 before losing to Brazil. Son Hueng-min, 33, is the captain and might be playing in his last World Cup. The Czech Republic is back in soccer's biggest showcase for the first time in 20 years.

FIFA has faced pressure for sky-high World Cup ticket prices and sales tactics that fans say left them with worse deals than they wanted.

The attorneys general in New York and New Jersey, which is hosting eight World Cup matches including the final, announced last month that they are investigating whether FIFA’s ticketing practices violated consumer protection laws.

Some seats for the July 19 final are going for nearly $33,000.

In the deeply polarized U.S., few things unite elected leaders outside the White House quite like skepticism of Gianni Infantino and FIFA, the governing body for the world’s most popular sport.

It’s a sentiment that cuts across the divide and spans from Washington to state capitals and city halls.

There are mayors like Zohran Mamdani of New York and Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Democrats who’ve balked at ticket prices. Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who played Division 1 soccer at the U.S. Naval Academy, said FIFA has been “detached from regular people around the world.”

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup