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On the morning of Might 20, seven trans climbers and allies in Yosemite unfolded a 55’-by-35’ trans pleasure flag about one third of the way in which up El Capitan. For about two hours, the climbers opened the pink and blue flag for public show above Coronary heart Ledges, about 1,000 toes above the bottom. The flag billowed 15 to twenty toes away from the wall and didn’t block entry to any routes.
“We need to be sure that trans folks know they’re welcome open air,” mentioned lead organizer SJ Joslin, a nonbinary climber, USA Climbing routesetter, and conservation biologist who works with bats in Yosemite. “Calling Congressmen and writing representatives appears like yelling into the void. Now we have this fucking microphone that’s El Cap.”
The group of flag riggers additionally included the drag queen and environmental activist Pattie Gonia. Final summer time, she efficiently campaigned on social media to reverse the Nationwide Park Service (NPS) ban on uniformed staff collaborating in pleasure occasions.
“Let this flag fly greater than hate,” she said in a press release. “We flew the trans pleasure flag in Yosemite to make a press release. Trans individuals are pure and trans individuals are cherished.”
“Trans existence will not be up for debate.”
That is the third flag-related protest in El Capitan prior to now 12 months. On June 17, 2024, pro-Palestinian climbers unfurled a 25-foot “Stop the Genocide” banner on El Cap Tower to protest Israel’s U.S.-supported bombardment of civilians in Gaza. Then, on February 22, 2025, seven present and ex-NPS staff dropped an upside-down American flag between the highest of El Cap’s Zodiac route and Horsetail Falls to protest the indiscriminate firing of 1,000 NPS staff and warn the general public about threats to public lands.
Prior to now few years, and notably in 2025, the U.S. authorities and dozens of state legislatures have moved to make it difficult for trans folks to precise their id and revel in equal rights in society. At present, greater than 1.6 million People, 0.6 % of the entire inhabitants, determine as trans.
Most visibly, five of President Trump’s January 2025 Executive Orders have focused particular rights for trans folks. The orders included directives to ban trans women in center and highschool from enjoying on women sports activities groups, switch trans ladies in federal jail to males’s cell blocks, and cease offering gender-affirming healthcare to trans sufferers. The President has additionally commanded the U.S. Armed Forces to expel all trans service members, no matter their rank or expertise—a choice that survived a prolonged Supreme Court docket problem and formally went into impact earlier this month.
Whereas many government actions have been challenged or blocked in courtroom, U.S. state legislatures have continued to move payments affecting trans folks. To date, in 2025, greater than 100 payments in 49 states have handed that prohibit trans People’ healthcare choices, authorized rights, participation in sports activities, and visibility in public life, in accordance with the Trans Laws Tracker’s public database. A number of human rights organizations, together with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee have expressed alarm at this pattern and urged the U.S. authorities to roll again anti-trans legal guidelines.
The day after Joslin and their workforce rigged the pleasure flag, we sat down with them to debate trans rights, El Cap, and their targets for the flag demonstration.
Climbing: The place did you first get the thought to fly a trans pleasure flag up on El Cap?
SJ Joslin: You know the way there have been month-to-month protests within the Park? I used to be driving to the second protest within the Park, and I used to be simply interested by every little thing that we’re going by means of. There was all this anti-trans rhetoric … all these ways in which the federal government tries to make us appear not human. I used to be interested by how El Cap has been a canvas for making statements all through the course of individuals climbing it. So I used to be like, what can I do, as somebody who has a selected set of expertise, to make somebody [feel] extra included and extra okay being themselves?
My niece had not too long ago come out as trans and was asking me a bunch of questions, and I simply actually felt this sense of, I’ve this platform. Calling Congressmen and writing representatives appears like yelling into the void. Now we have this fucking microphone that’s El Cap. So I went to the protest and chatted with a number of individuals who additionally wall climb, after which we acquired Pattie concerned as a result of we needed to fundraise for the flag. That was two months in the past. It’s simply been this actually superb journey of contacting folks to assist out and having them go above and past what we’d anticipate. Like, the flagmaker gave us this flag for price.
Climbing: Your protest has hit nationwide and worldwide information shops like NBC, USA Immediately, and The San Francisco Chronicle. What has the backlash been like thus far?
Joslin: Only a regular quantity of hate on-line, like, “Oh my god, get that vandalism off,” and “The NPS took it down,” which wasn’t true.
Climbing: Did you obtain any response from the federal government?
Joslin: The DOI [Department of the Interior] responded on-line and issued orders for folks in Yosemite to take down the flag, however we have been already taking it down. We had it up round 9 a.m. after which we took it down round 11 a.m.
Climbing: Each of Pattie Gonia’s Instagram posts about yesterday’s demonstration embrace the mantra, “Trans is pure.” Your press release reinforces this with a BBC Earth report on the varied species of fish that may swap their sexual organs from feminine to male, or vice versa, in response to completely different environmental elements. What would you say to individuals who may ask, “If trans is pure, why do trans folks contain surgical procedure as a part of their transition?”
Joslin: You don’t should have surgical procedure to be trans. That’s only a manner of letting your physique validate what your inner mind chemistry is saying. That’s similar to, “What shirt am I going to put on?” or “Do I need an ear piercing?” or “Do I need to dye my hair as a result of I need to be a brunette or a blonde?” That’s validating one thing in you that’s like, “I’m a brunette and I need to be a blonde as a result of I really feel like a blonde.” Simply because you will have surgical procedure, doesn’t imply you’re trans. Folks have elective surgical procedures on a regular basis.
You’ll be trans regardless of the way you look. Simply since you are born feminine and also you look feminine doesn’t imply that you simply’re not a person. Gender is a assemble, and we do issues each day in our lives to make ourselves be extra who we’re. Now we have a proper over our our bodies to do what we wish. If we need to look or have a extra masculine or female physique as a result of that helps us with dysphoria, that’s our proper, however that’s not making us trans. What’s making us trans is inside ourselves. The surgical procedures affirm our transness, however they don’t make us trans.
Climbing: When folks see photos of the trans pleasure flag on El Capitan, what would you like them to remove?
Joslin: I simply need them to know that being trans needs to be celebrated. Solely you understand your true id, and no matter your id is, it’s stunning and needs to be accepted. There shouldn’t be anybody telling you what proper you must your physique or to your thoughts or to your expression of your self. Trans existence will not be up for debate. Simply because folks need to silence us doesn’t imply we’re going to go away. We’ve existed since time immemorial and in all completely different cultures. In some cultures, transness is well known as a result of it’s uncommon. It simply so occurs that Anglo-Saxon tradition is that one which rose to dominate a lot of the West.
Climbing: As a nonbinary particular person, what’s your largest worry for your self and for different trans folks proper now?
Joslin: I believe the snowball will get greater and folks’s hate will gas coverage in ways in which break up households and terrorize folks. Simply with the ability to be surveilled, as a trans or homosexual particular person now, is absolutely upsetting. My largest worry is our rights and our households being taken away. One other huge concern for me is entry to healthcare and gender-affirming healthcare, particularly for trans youth. A number of trans youngsters die by suicide as a result of they’re not affirmed. That, to me, is sort of big.
Climbing: Some folks have criticized flag protests on El Cap by saying, “El Cap shouldn’t be a group message board.” What would you say to these folks?
Joslin: I don’t essentially disagree with that. However there have been no guidelines that mentioned we couldn’t do what we did, so we did it as a result of it was a strategy to get a message out. If there have been guidelines saying that we couldn’t cling a flag from El Cap, then we wouldn’t have hung a flag from El Cap. We’d have needed to provide you with extra inventive options to get a message of assist out to the world. However we did it as a result of that’s our type of recreation, and the purpose of the Park Service is to recreate. We need to be sure that trans folks know they’re welcome open air.
Climbing: What’s one of the simplest ways that the climbing group can present up for trans climbers proper now?
Joslin: The perfect factor that somebody who desires to be an ally can do will not be be silent, get up for folks, and educate folks so we don’t should. It’s a normal theme in a whole lot of marginalized teams that there’s a normal tax of teaching folks in order that they don’t objectify the group into being one thing that’s lower than human. Going into how gender is a assemble will not be one thing that I need to spend time on as a result of I’m maxed out simply making an attempt to handle myself and my folks.
This interview has been frivolously edited for readability and size.
