Pattie Gonia turns Yosemite trans Pride flag into fierce red carpet look

Mother Nature’s favourite drag queen Pattie Gonia looked stunning on the red carpet at the weekend, wearing a dress made from the trans flag that was seen hanging in Yosemite park earlier this year.

The environmental activist and performer was the talk of the Out100 Gala on Sunday (23 November) after appearing dressed in a 66ft-long trans flag, which they had turned into a strapless dress.

She attended the annual awards ceremony alongside non-binary former Yosemite park ranger Shannon “SJ” Joslin, who was reportedly fired from their job in August after the flag was raised across El Capitan, a rock formation in the Californian national park.

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At the 2025 Out100 Gala, drag activist Pattie Gonia and former Yosemite park ranger SJ Joslin made a powerful statement by arriving wrapped in a massive trans-pride flag — the same 55×35-foot banner that was hung on El Capitan earlier this year. Joslin, who identifies as trans and was fired from their job at the park after participating in the original flag drop, was honored as one of this year’s Out100 honorees.Their appearance turned heads both for its stunning fashion and its political weight. Gonia said it’s a reminder that “trans people are natural and trans people are loved,” while Joslin reiterated that their identities are “valid, real, and nothing to be ashamed of.” #PattieGonia #dragqueen #Yosemite #ElCapitan #transflag

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“Dear Trump administration: You can fire us, you can defend our national parks, you can tell us that we’re not valid and that we shouldn’t exist, and we will keep turning your fear and hate into love and community and we will win because we always do,” Joslin told reporters.

A group of climbers, including Pattie Gonia, helped to drape the flag across the rock face as a way to highlight that trans people belong “in nature, in community and everywhere.”

A month later, Joslin claimed their contract had been terminated for allegedly “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct'” despite carrying out the protest “in my free time, off duty, as a private citizen”.

The former ranger went on say: “I hung a trans flag on El Capitan. It flew for a total of two hours in the morning, then I took it down.” Other flags had been planted in the same location, they pointed out.

Asked about her decision to wear the flag as a dress, Pattie told Out magazine: “What better fashion statement is there to make than that trans people are loved? And getting to do it while ‘upcycling’ something the Trump administration tries to demonise.”

A week earlier, Pattie took to Instagram to call out secretary of war Pete Hegseth for his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, all while performing more pull-ups than he had been seen doing in a viral clip that resurfaced recently.

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