KANNAPOLIS — 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.

“When we moved into this house, I loved it, so much that I said I would die in that house,” said Lloyd. “But I didn’t mean in my 30s.”

Andy said he grew up as the child of two Republicans, and has seen life from both sides. He managed a few political campaigns during his younger years and was involved in the Young Democrats of North Carolina for years, serving as president for the Rowan-Cabarrus district and he still serves for the Rowan County Democrats.

He has a different approach to campaigning that he believes, while not typical, is more effective. Even on the campaign trail, he invested in community events and in creating things like a community hub in High Point that is still used extensively by people in the area.

“It’s how you learn from your community what they need, what they are worried about, what they are prioritizing,” Andy said.

When he and Lloyd agreed that Andy would run again, they knew the campaign would take him away from home frequently, and they didn’t want to miss out on time with their child. So they invested in the purchase of a school bus they named Kismet the Wander Bus, and once renovations were complete, they planned to use it to help keep the family together more often. Eventually they also planned to use it to travel the United States to see the country they call home.

But that dream has also been put on hold, as the tires need replacing and the gas needs to be tested to determine if it’s been tampered with. Money that has to go to that is now not going to renovations or to repairs to the house.

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.

Andy is not unfamiliar with the spotlight. He lived in New York for a time and worked as a model — male and female, he could do both, which made him desirable because he could fill both roles. But he eventually decided he both needed and wanted to come home. In addition, his transition from female to male took time, emotionally and psychologically as well as physically. The child he and Lloyd share is their own, Andy said, who acknowledged he knew he could only carry a child once, because it is not at all how he identifies. But he and Lloyd both love their son fiercely and are grateful to have him.

“Lloyd and I have been best friends since we were four,” said Andy. “We have known one another through it all.”

When they decided to become roommates during the pandemic, it became clear to both that their feelings over time had matured and become something far deeper, and now they both say how fortunate they are to be married to their best friend.

But it comes at a time when limitations on trans people are growing stronger and stronger.

“Andy is going to be up against kidney infections because he can’t use any public bathroom anywhere,” sad Lloyd. “This is not something that is happening against some unknown entity. We are a family of normal, everyday people who just want to grow vegetables in our back yard and raise our son. I guarantee you I’ve been in the grocery store with the people who are attacking our home.”

And it has stretched beyond vandalism. Andy has received email death threats from the time he first ran for office, but it reached the point where the life of their child was threatened, which raised the concern level for both men.

“If you are in politics in North Carolina, you have to be ready to take the hits and come back with grace,” said Andy. “But my child is innocent. Imagine if this was happening to you and your child.”

Lloyd agreed, noting that when he talks about the threats in particular, it is hard not to become furious.

“Why would anyone think this is OK?” he said. “Why can we not just let people live their lives?”

Kannapolis Police Chief Terry Spry said his department has an open investigation with a dedicated lead, and confirmed they have received reports from the couple. And he said the damage done to the bumper of the bus had to be more than just someone pulling on it, because it is “very secure and the damage is heavy.”

He said he encourages Andy and Lloyd, who say they don’t always call because they worry the incidents are too small, to call anyway.

“Even if there isn’t a full report taken, calling creates a CAD note in our system, and then when we run the address we can see if there is a pattern of incidents of vandalism or other activity,” he said.

Lloyd added that his neighbors have made the couple aware that there has been consistent police attention to their neighborhood and it has reduced the activity in the last two weeks at least.

“We love this city; we’ve loved watching it grow and become successful around us,” Andy wrote in the couple’s GoFundMe. “We love taking our little boy to the park or downtown just to wander and see the shops. But because being a queer couple is apparently “dangerous,” a few people in the city we love are telling us we aren’t welcome.”