A co-founder of Moms For Liberty, the virulently anti-LGBTQ group, is being asked to resign her position as a school board member, after rape allegations against her husband and revelations she engaged in threesomes with him have surfaced.
Two fellow Sarasota County School Board members are calling on chairwoman Bridget Ziegler to resign from her post.
Karen Rose and Tom Edwards are both calling for Ziegler to leave the school board, calling her a “distraction” and her husband’s alleged behavior “disturbing.”
"She is nothing but a distraction from before and only getting worse, and it will never go away as long as she sits there," Edwards said, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "As a School Board member, my focus is on our students, their academic achievement and educational outcomes. It is not on the Zieglers' escapades."
Moms for Liberty has called for book bans and spread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Edwards, who is gay, also addressed the Zieglers’ far-right beliefs — namely fighting against critical race theory and LGBTQ+ issues — and said the couple "cannot any longer be near children or public policy." He walked out of a March meeting when he was called a groomer by another board member.
Rose, who was recently voted chairwoman of the board, also spoke up against Ziegler.
“Our community has been rocked by the disturbing revelations surrounding my fellow School Board member Bridget Ziegler and the criminal allegations against her husband, Christian Ziegler,” school board member Karen Rose wrote. “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the conduct and deplore the salacious news coverage. But my first responsibility is to the Sarasota County School District.”
A woman who was in a relationship with the Zieglers told police and that Christian Ziegler showed up at her apartment and raped her after she backed out of a three-way when Bridget Ziegler was not available to participate. The complaint was filed on Oct. 4, according to the Florida Center for Government Accountability, and Christian Ziegler is accused of videotaping the encounters with his wife and the complainant.
Gov. Ron DeSantis — who endorsed Bridget Ziegler in her reelection — called on Christian Ziegler to step down as the chairman of the Florida GOP, but he has refused.
“We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up,” Christian Ziegler wrote, according to CNN.
Florida Democrats chairwoman Nikki Fried also called on Christian Ziegler to resign.
“Your reign is over,” she said, referring to the GOP. “Don’t tell us what to do in our bedrooms, don’t you dare come after the LGBTQ+ community again, and don’t lecture us about family values. The Republican Party of Florida is in shambles.”
