Non-binary veteran and community leader Lindsay Church is stepping into politics, launching a campaign for Congress in Illinois’s 4th district, saying democracy and LGBTQ+ safety are under threat. Church and their wife fled Virginia in 2023 after anti-queer harassment and settled near Chicago, where they finally felt safe enough to “take some of that armour off.” But that safety, Church says, is increasingly fragile as queer rights are rolled back and voters are shut out of meaningful choice.
Their campaign comes after longtime Democratic Representative Jesús “Chuy” García announced his retirement after the filing deadline, leaving voters with a single, uncontested successor. Church said the community and the country deserve real choice, adding that the decision was “made for us without us casting a single ballot.” A veteran who served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Church has seen LGBTQ+ voices erased before — and is determined not to let it happen again. They ask, “If not us, then who? And if not now, when?” For Church, the campaign is deeply personal and unmistakably defiant.
