Battle Ground’s first International Transgender Day of Remembrance proclamation landed last Monday night with a sense of overdue acknowledgment, coming over a year after a minority of the city council voted to pull the mayor’s Pride Month proclamation from the agenda.
Community members said the new proclamation felt like a small but meaningful shift.
Mayor Troy McCoy read the statement during the Monday, Nov. 17, council meeting to recognize the international day of recognition held on Nov. 20. It was written by Simon Graves, a nonbinary Battle Ground resident and volunteer with Evoke Cascadia, which hosts the annually-held Battle Ground Pride event. Graves said hearing the mayor deliver their words brought a mix of relief and heaviness, especially given the city’s recent history with LGBTQ acknowledgments.
The proclamation honored transgender people lost to violence, suicide and neglect, and it named local teen Nikki Kuhnhausen as a reminder that the risks trans people face are not distant or abstract.
“She was killed within school district boundaries … it’s very possible she’s not the only trans person that was killed here, but she’s the only one we have reports on,” Graves said. “I wanted to bring her up and show the community that this isn’t a fake thing that happens only elsewhere, this happens here.”
Kuhnhausen disappeared in June 2019, prompting a community search effort. Her remains were found that December near Larch Mountain. Prosecutors charged a Vancouver man with second-degree murder and malicious harassment, the state’s hate-crime statute. He was later convicted and sentenced. For Graves, including her in the proclamation was essential because her killing showed that anti-trans violence can and does happen inside Clark County’s boundaries.
The proclamation received praise from local residents during the public comment period.
“The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an important acknowledgement that our transgender neighbors matter to us. Their lives matter, my transgender friends deserve safety from violence and to be treated with kindness, this proclamation reminds us of that,” local community volunteer Bev Jones said.
“I’d just like to reiterate the comments on the proclamation. Thank you, mayor,” Battle Ground resident David Terry added. “That’s a good gesture for our neighbors and it’s stuff we need to keep doing here.”
This proclamation followed two tense Pride seasons in Battle Ground. In 2024, a minority of councilors pushed to remove Pride Month recognition from the agenda. That minority vote succeeded, which led to public backlash and legal concerns about whether council rules allowed too few members to block a mayor’s ceremonial authority. The council ultimately addressed that issue in early 2025 by ending the ability of a minority to remove a proclamation from the agenda. Mayor McCoy read the Pride Month proclamation last June.
“It was (messed) up and out of place,” Graves recalled. “It wasn’t their place to do that.”
Graves emphasized the importance of even minor recognition following the reading on Monday.
“Visibility shows there is room for us here, that we don't have to leave just to survive. Being dismissed or erased creates real lasting harm. And honestly, I'm deeply concerned this may be the last one I'm allowed to bring forward,” they said.
Jessica Cole, president of Evoke Cascadia, attended the meeting and said the proclamation mattered, especially after difficulty securing LGBTQ acknowledgments.
Graves said they feel “very fortunate” to have had steady support while transitioning, both socially and medically, as an adult. They said many transgender people in the region lack that stability, which is part of why they stepped forward to write the proclamation.
“I know I’m very privileged in that aspect,” they said. “A lot of people don’t have the support or ability to transition, so I felt comfortable enough, secure enough, to do this.”
They added that visibility looks different across the region, noting that the City of Vancouver regularly highlights LGBTQ+ observances in news releases and social media posts without hesitation. Battle Ground, they said, may take far longer to reach that level of openness.
For now, they see the proclamation as a symbolic moment that still carries real meaning.
“When I say I’m trans, I’m here and you acknowledge it, it gives me a rare sense of hope that people like me can exist openly in this community,” they said on Monday.
