Stevenson divided over shirtless display

by Emily Harris and Documenter Lorena Lowell | Columbia Gorge, Skamania County

April 29, 2025

A woman wearing maroon bodice, a short blue skirt, black boots and a cape carries a flag with rainbow stripes and pastel chevrons, next to two people holding handmade signs.

Lucy Lauser (carrying flag) outside the Skamania County Courthouse in June 2024. Please see editor's note at the end of the story for more information. Photo: Lauren Cascarella

More than two weeks after Stevenson City Council member Lucy Lauser removed her shirt at a public protest March 31, triggering law enforcement action, the highly emotional public reaction moved from social media into City Hall.

Sixteen people spoke about the incident at the council’s tense April 17 meeting, some demanding action from council members.

Lauser is a transgender woman who won her council seat in 2023 with two-thirds of the vote.

Speakers at the meeting were evenly split in support and in opposition to Lauser’s decision to go bare-chested at the March 31 gathering, which took place around midday on the Skamania County courthouse lawn.

Those speaking in support described Lauser as a good person and emphasized her First Amendment rights, while people expressing concern primarily focused on the presence of children at the event and Lauser’s position as an elected official.

“Choosing to expose yourself publicly while holding elected office isn’t a political statement,” Pamela Seaman, a Carson resident and critic of Lauser’s actions, told the council. “It’s a betrayal of public trust. It’s self-indulgence dressed up as activism.”

Leah Smith, also from Carson, took a supportive view. She said she had witnessed the demonstration and felt that Lauser was there “for herself,” not as a representative of the city council. She characterized some critical reactions as going too far.

“It has become a really ugly mob mentality,” she told the council. “I have a family full of humans that are all somewhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, and they don’t feel safe in this community.”

Smith told council members that is their job to “make sure” that residents do feel safe.

Other speakers felt the council should sanction Lauser in some way. Some told council members they should censure her or pass policies clarifying public behavior for elected officials. Josh Barstow, from Stevenson, said Lauser should resign. He said his position “isn’t about bullying Lucy for being trans” but rather “expecting a basic level of judgement” from elected officials.

But another speaker, Parker, who did not give a last name but identified as trans, noted that the protest had been held on a day designated to raise awareness of transgender people. Parker said Lauser’s actions needed to be understood in that context.

“I think we that maybe we need to be curious as to why Lucy did this, what is happening in our community, what is happening in our country to trans people, before we start talking about all the other things,” Parker said.

Lauser was at the meeting, in her seat at the table with other council members. She spoke at the end of the public comment period then again near the end of the evening, and described her shirtless appearance as a direct response to recent federal policies against transgender people.

“Starting on his first day in office, President Trump issued a series of executive orders declaring that I am a man and also dishonorable, anti-American, a threat to society, unworthy of service to my country, and on and on,” Lauser said.

Removing her shirt in public was, she said, a way to call out discrimination and threats she has faced for doing “something that men do freely with zero consequence,” adding that “since the federal government has actually declared that I am a man … I felt it was necessary.”

Her comments were briefly interrupted by an audience member, upset she was allowed to speak longer than members of the public, and then by Stevenson Mayor Scott Anderson, who wanted to move on to regular business.

The Skamania County sheriff’s office did not arrest Lauser at the protest, but referred the incident to the county prosecutor, Adam Kick, to consider charges of indecent exposure.

Kick told Uplift Local that because his office represents the City of Stevenson, he is seeking a prosecutor from a different county to consider the case, as the state Attorney General “appears unwilling” to accept it.

Read Documenter Lorena Lowell’s full meeting notes here.

[Editor’s note: The photo was included in a written public comment. When this story was published, the woman to the left of Lucy Lauser in the photo contacted us with concerns that the expression on her face would be misinterpreted. She wanted to be clear that she is fully supportive of Lauser, including her actions at the March 31 protest.

Separately, we want to note that were unable to verify spelling of all public commenters’ names.]