Moms for Liberty Co-Founder Admits to Three-Way Relationship
Bridget Ziegler, known for her anti-LGBTQ stances, was involved in a sexual tryst with a woman who is now accusing her husband of rape.
Bridget Ziegler, one of the original co-founders of Moms for Liberty, the right-wing activist group that has centered much of its activism around eradicating LGBTQ identity in school curricula and pushing for the removal of books relating to gender and sexuality, admitted to having a three-way sexual relationship with a woman.
Ziegler, who has stepped away from Moms for Liberty, told police that she and her husband, Christian, had previously engaged in a sexual tryst with a woman who has since accused Christian Ziegler of rape, according to Politico.
The accuser, who has reportedly known Christian Ziegler for over 20 years, alleged that she arranged to have a sexual encounter with the Zieglers on October 2 but canceled after learning Bridget was unable to make it, according to a police affidavit obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
The woman claims Christian Ziegler then came to her apartment unannounced and sexually assaulted her, refusing to wear a condom during the encounter.
Christian Ziegler, a former Sarasota County Commissioner who now serves as the chair of the Florida Republican Party, has denied the allegations against him, arguing that the sexual encounter was consensual.
He reportedly told detectives that he took video of the encounter, initially deleting it but later uploading it to his Google Drive. He has not been charged with any crime.
Bridget Ziegler, long active in Florida Republican politics with her husband, currently serves as a Sarasota County School Board member. She has been one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s staunchest allies and, like the governor, has been outspoken about her support for scrubbing LGBTQ identity from any materials or discussions in schools to prevent children from being “indoctrinated” into identifying as LGBTQ or viewing LGBTQ identity as socially acceptable.
Following Bridget Ziegler’s admission of the three-way tryst, she was accused of hypocrisy for her outspoken trumpeting of conservative “family values” and her efforts to expunge LGBTQ content from schools.
At least two of her fellow school board members have called for her resignation, arguing that her personal life has become a distraction.
The other co-founders of Moms for Liberty, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, have since distanced themselves from Ziegler, noting in a statement that she “stepped back from the organization’s management board in 2021,” shortly after the group was incorporated.
Moms for Liberty has since grown to include more than 120,000 members and 300 chapters across 44 U.S. states and has become massively influential in Republican politics, with GOP presidential candidates courting the group’s support. It has also alienated other voters who may be more wary of the group’s more conservative stances, especially concerning textbook and library censorship.
“We are laser-focused on fundamental parental rights, and that mission is and always will be bigger than any one person,” Justice and Descovich said in a joint statement.
While not directly involved with the organization, Christian Ziegler, who spoke at Moms for Liberty’s national summit in Philadelphia this past summer, previously advised attendees during a media training session to “Never apologize. Ever.”
For her part, Bridget Ziegler has been a passionate supporter of the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. She has previously posted a photo of herself wearing a shirt reading, “Real women aren’t men” in response to Bud Light’s decision to enlist transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an online promotion, which has since led to a backlash against the company in the form of boycotts.
The Zieglers are now under heavy criticism from both sides of the political aisle, though left-leaning politicians and LGBTQ advocates have been the most outspoken at what they see as the couple’s hypocrisy and willingness to further anti-LGBTQ tropes.
“This entire time terrorist hate group Moms For Liberty has attacked the LGBTQ+ community just for living all whilst their cofounder was caught in a bisexual threesome with her Florida GOP husband who’s now criminally charged with abusing the woman involved,” musician and outspoken political commentator Ricky Davila wrote on X. “Fucking hypocrites.”
This entire time terrorist hate group Moms For Liberty has attacked the LGBTQ+ community just for living all whilst their cofounder was caught in a bisexual threesome with her Florida GOP husband who’s now criminally charged with abusing the woman involved. Fucking hypocrites.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) December 2, 2023
“What’s offensive about the Zieglers isn’t that they’re in a non-traditional relationship,” former Florida State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), who now serves as a senior policy advisor to LGBTQ rights organization Equality Florida, told Florida Politics. “It’s that they baselessly accused LGBTQ Floridians of immorality, sexual perversion and deviance simply because of our non-traditional LGBTQ relationships. That’s the worst kind of hypocrisy.”
Brevard County School Board Member Jennifer Jenkins, who has been ruthlessly attacked and barraged with death threats after unseating Descovich in the 2020 election, had some choice words for the Zieglers.
“As a female elected official, I’ve experienced the harassment of the Florida Republican Party and members of Moms for Liberty, spreading allegations of an affair through an obsessive website, critiquing the way that I dress and a state representative calling me a whore — all under the guise of protecting from predators while intentionally avoiding their very own mirrors,” Jenkins told Florida Politics.
“And when it comes to the Zieglers, not a damn word from Moms for Liberty except standing with them in solidarity — not once, but twice. If the incidents that took place were written in a chapter book, Moms for Liberty would be rallying to ban them, condemning the author and the educators who curated it.”
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.