MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race star Pattie Gonia celebrated a group of LGBTQ activist climbers unfurling a massive transgender flag on the famous El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park on Tuesday.
“We flew the Trans pride flag in Yosemite to make a statement: Trans people are natural and Trans people are loved,” Gonia, one of the lead organizers of the demonstration, said, according to a report by NBC News.
View this post on Instagram
“Let this flag fly higher than hate. We are done being polite about Trans people’s existence,” the drag queen added. “Call it a protest, call it a celebration — either way, it’s giving elevation to liberation.”
The coalition of LGBTQ activist climbers, known as “Trans Is Natural,” said its members unfurled the transgender flag “in an act of solidarity and resistance”
The flag is 55 feet by 35 feet, making it the largest ever displayed atop the iconic rock El Capitan climbing destination, the group added.
The LGBTQ activists reportedly hung the massive trans flag up somewhere between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., 1,500 feet up El Capitan, where it remained displayed until around noon, when park officials ordered for it be removed.
View this post on Instagram
A Yosemite National Park spokesperson told NBC News Wednesday that park officials were “aware of the unauthorized display,” adding that “the flag was removed a soon as possible.”
“The National Park Service is conducting an inquiry into the facts and circumstances around this event,” the spokesperson said. “We take the protection of our national parks seriously and will not tolerate behavior that undermines their integrity.”
The “Trans Is Natural” group conveyed that the flag display was in protest of President Donald Trump and his administration, citing the removal of transgender propaganda from government websites.
“Trans people are my friends. I step up when my friends need help and we all need to step up right now for Trans people,” Nate Vince, a climber who was involved in raising an upside-down American flag at Yosemite earlier this year — also in protest of the Trump administration — said.
The climbers who hung the trans flag on Tuesday displayed the banner on the “Heart Ledges” of El Capitan, to symbolize the reclaiming of space in the heart of Yosemite, the group noted.
“Raising this flag in the heart of El Capitan is a celebration of our community standing in solidarity with each other and all targeted groups,” SJ Joslin, another leader organizer of the demonstration, said.
“Trans existence is not up for debate,” Joslin continued, before bizarrely adding that “Being trans is a natural, beautiful part of human and biological diversity.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
