El Capitan Is Not Your Personal Poster Board
America's beautiful national treasure is not a grievance booster.
A group of radical LGBTQ activists recently hung the transgender-pride flag at Yosemite’s El Capitan. And I do not use that term “radical” simply because I despise the activist’s goals and beliefs. They truly are radical. Wyn Wylie, a drag performer known as Pattie Gonia, is a leader of these activists, who also founded a nonprofit organization called The Outdoorist Oath. This nonprofit (cult?) initiates members by having them take an oath where they affirm the existence of climate change and “systemic oppression.” They also pledge to participate in environmental justice, plus they get the opportunity to learn about “microaggressions in the outdoors” and join in sessions about white supremacy. You know, normal community center stuff.
Anyway, these radicals had the bright idea to climb 1,500 feet up El Capitan to unfurl the 55-by-35-foot flag. The flag had messages written in black marker like “free Palestine” and “be gay do crime.” According to the aforementioned Wylie, the activists “flew the Trans Pride flag in Yosemite to make a statement: Trans people are natural and Trans people are loved.”
Oh, I see now. Trans people are just as natural as El Capitan is. Clever. As one organizer of this flag unfurling put it, “Being trans is a natural, beautiful part of human and biological diversity.”
Thankfully, the flag was only displayed for a few hours. The Yosemite Park Service had to get involved, calling the flag an “unauthorized display.” The activist group complied.
As it turns out, this is not the first time political scoring flags have been flown at El Capitan. In fact, the mountain has been a bit of a target in the last year or so. In June of 2024, activists hung a banner that read “Stop the Genocide.” This was in reference to Israel’s war against Gaza, which Israeli critics have disingenuously described as an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Then, in February of this year, disgruntled Yosemite National Park staffers flew the American flag upside down as a sign of distress to express their disapproval of the Trump administration laying off federal employees. (Recall that many on the Left gave Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito hell because his wife flew the upside-down flag following January 6. Double standard, anyone?)
Call me quaint, but I don’t think our national parks should be abused to make political points, especially extremely divisive issues like trans ideology. National parks like Yosemite are stunningly beautiful natural treasures. People from all over the country and all over the world come to these parks to enjoy a good hike and to go camping. No one (no normal person, that is) takes their family to El Capitan thinking, “Gee, I really hope that I will be made aware of the natural nature of transgender individuals. It’s the only reason I go to these darn parks.”
El Capitan is a masterpiece of God’s creation. I don’t care to assign El Capitan any sort of spiritual symbolism. After all, it’s just a mountain, and to suggest that man shouldn’t be allowed to touch it, as some extreme environmentalists insist, is absurd. But with that said, do you know what El Capitan is not? It’s not your own personalized poster board where you get to express whatever you want. We go to these national parks to enjoy the natural world, not to vent about our political grievances. Simply put, hanging a giant transgender-pride flag (or any other political banner) is not what national parks are for.
Activists should take their weird, ideological creeds elsewhere.