Our RCDP 3rd Vice Chair, Andy Craighill-Middleton, and his family have experienced multiple incidents of vandalism at their home. As one of our own, we post this Salisbury Post coverage for your knowledge of what Andy and his family have been and are facing.

When Andy Craighill-Middleton decided to run for a seat in the state’s House of Representatives in 2024 as a write-in candidate, had he been elected he would have been the first openly transgender man to hold higher office in the state of North Carolina.

He didn’t succeed that time, but decided he would try again, this time planning to get on the ballot.

But within days of preparing to announce his plans, he and his husband, Lloyd, and their two-year-old son began to get the message that maybe that was not a good idea.

Over the last several months, the couple’s Kannapolis home has been subjected to multiple incidents of vandalism, from broken glass on the ground where their child plays to smashed hanging plant baskets. There have been indications of someone standing outside the house at night, with smudges on the sides of cars where someone has leaned on it and cigarette butts scattered around the same space when no one in the house smokes. In one instance, someone tried to pull the front bumper off of a used school bus the couple bought to turn into a traveling home on wheels they could use during the campaign and to travel. Tires have been slashed on the bus and on cars.

Most recently, someone used a pipe or some other strong instrument, smaller than a baseball bat, said Lloyd, to hit their mailbox so hard it knocked it completely off the post. The couple found it in the yard.

Currently, the small family is no longer living in the house. They visit, check in, and at some point hope to make enough repairs to sell it, because it is no longer the safe haven a home should be.

…The couple started a GoFundMe to help with the new costs because they have reached a point that they feel so unsafe in their home they want to be able to change locations on a moment’s notice, something the bus would provide. As it stands now, they do not spend nights at home, relying on family and friends to change locations. Which means they have a house, but no home.

Read the entire article at: https://www.salisburypost.com/2025/04/12/when-home-isnt-home-anymore-kannapolis-queer-couple-experiences-multiple-incidents-of-vandalism/