It’s gotten to where it’s almost axiomatic in American politics: Show me somebody who gets TV face-time railing against others’ sexual sins, and I’ll show you somebody hiding naughty secrets. The latest example is an amusing scandal involving Moms for Liberty, the Florida-based right-wing organization that made its name by publicizing what this column described as “the preposterous idea that the nation’s public-school librarians and grade-school teachers are plotting the sexual subversion of small children.”
One correspondent framed the new scandal this way: “Newest children’s title approved for Florida school libraries: ‘Bridget’s Totally Non-Gay Three-Way.”’ Cruel, but funny.
The Bridget in question is Bridget Ziegler, the Sarasota spokesmodel and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, and her husband, Christian Ziegler. Among other things, Mrs. Ziegler is credited with helping inspire Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law forbidding teachers from mentioning the existence of homosexuality.
See, it turns out that husband Christian stands accused of raping the woman with whom he and Bridget had been sharing sexual liaisons. Sarasota police released a heavily redacted investigative report containing the words “raped” and “sexually battered.” The allegation is that Christian Ziegler, the elected chairman of Florida’s Republican Party, showed up at the alleged victim’s place seeking a more traditional two-way adulterous encounter.
According to an affidavit obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, and reported by Lucian K. Truscott IV, the woman demurred, explaining, “Sorry, I was mostly in (it) for her.” She says Ziegler proceeded to take her by force. His lawyer told The Washington Post that when all the evidence comes out, Ziegler will be “totally exonerated.”
Criminally, perhaps. Politically, not a chance. You see, Ziegler told Sarasota police that the encounter was consensual and offered as evidence a video he’d made. I expect that’s one selfie you won’t be seeing on Facebook. The cops have taken possession of all of Ziegler’s electronic devices. The accused also argues that he’s being persecuted for his political views.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has said Ziegler should resign from the GOP chairmanship. The governor hasn’t said anything about Bridget’s position on the Sarasota County school board, nor about her oversight role with the special tax district he created to punish the Walt Disney Co. In the latter capacity, Bridget has in the past accused the company of making cartoons corrupting children.
Almost needless to say, the Zieglers are also big Trump allies. Because nothing enhances one’s credibility with right-wing Christians like being strong with the old p—y-grabber.
Bridget Ziegler has also admitted a sexual encounter involving her, her husband and his accuser, but says it only happened the one time. A cynic might suspect she knows that the woman can prove it. It would appear unlikely that there’s just the one video.
Politically, Moms for Liberty has done the Republicans more harm than good anyway. Banning books, attacking teachers and librarians, and picking on vulnerable LGBTQ students has turned out to be less popular among voters than many imagined it would be. Recent school board and state legislative elections, in Pennsylvania and Virginia in particular, resulted in candidates associated with the group losing pretty much across the board. It appears that voters aren’t happy about being told their local schools are run by perverts and subversives.
Perhaps in consequence, pious frauds in general are a little more cautious about accusing everybody else of sexual libertinism of late. Erin Burnett had a fascinating segment on her CNN program about a book called “The Revivalist Manifesto,” for which GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote a laudatory foreword in 2022.
Basically, it was one of those deals where a political crony back home in Shreveport produced an extreme-right screed that played very differently in the nation’s capital. The author, Scott McKay, a Louisiana blogger, is all about the so-called Gay Agenda. He’s particularly exercised by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, variously described as “openly and obnoxiously gay” and as displaying what the author calls “queer sanctimony,” whatever that is. He describes him as a complete nonentity with no qualifications for public office apart from his sexual identity.
Never mind that Buttigieg is a Rhodes scholar, a war veteran and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The insinuation is that no sanctimonious queer could possibly know anything about harbors, railroads and trucks. In the real world, the secretary is widely credited with solving the post-COVID supply-chain problems that contributed so much to monetary inflation.
McKay also spends a lot of time on the QAnon-endorsed “Pizzagate” fantasy accusing name-brand Democrats of child sexual abuse orgies conducted in the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant that has no basement.
But why go on? Speaker Johnson, who has an extensive history of denouncing the “homosexual agenda,” now says he never actually read the manifesto he promoted and disagrees with its slurs.
I wonder who’s next.
Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President.”
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