Trantifa city council member facing recall over indecent exposure charges during topless protest now running for mayor of Stevenson, WA

A left-wing trans-identified city council member who was arrested for indecent exposure while protesting topless in Stevenson, Washington earlier this year has announced a run for mayor. At the same time, the official is facing a recall campaign in the wake of the arrest.

Lucy Lauser, a city council member in Stevenson, Washington, is running for mayor in the Democrat primary set for August 5. Archives of Lauser's social media profile link the official to Antifa, who has talked about treating Republicans as "Nazis."

In April when Lauser protested topless, police wrote in their report that the they were tipped off by someone who said "a 'female protester' was standing on the sidewalk exposing her 'chest'" in public, and that when police approached Lauser, the official claimed that displaying the "breasts as an act of protesting was not considered obscene."

"Lauser advised she was expressing her First Amendment Right by exposing her breasts," the report at the time added.

Lauser has said of the mayoral campaign, per KREM2, that inspiration for political office came from Stu Rasmussen, who was the former mayor of Silverton, Oregon, as well as the first openly transgender mayor in America.

"It kind of changed what I thought was possible for myself," Lauser said. "It was the first time I'd ever seen someone like me not presented as a monster or a joke, but as someone in a position of respect."

After the earlier topless indecent in April, Lauer once again protested topless, only this time using small pieces of tape to cover up on July 4. Lauser was later arrested and then released after posting bond and was charged with indecent exposure.

"I couldn't think of a better method of protesting the president calling me a man than taking off my shirt and getting arrested for it," Lauser said.

However, Lauser has also been facing a recall campaign during the run for mayor. Kathleen Fitzgerald, a local business owner, is heading up a recall effort

"I knew right away that it was a crime; it's against the law," Fitzgerald said of when Lauser went topless. "A majority of people are concerned that there is a topless woman and their children are seeing this. ... All public elected officials should be held to a higher standard."