Rules for thee, nay for me...'cuz we loves us some threesomes

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is what Moms for Liberty claims to stand for

Dec 05, 2023

Court records now show that Moms For Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, whose group has attacked LGBTQ people as “groomers” and gone on book-banning purges has admitted to having sex with a woman in a three-way with Ziegler's husband—as she was pushing her extremist anti-LGBTQ agenda. Her husband, Florida Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler, is accused of raping the woman a year later—though he denies it, stating it was “consensual” extramarital sex.
Michelangelo Signorile

I think I can speak for many people on the Left when I say that I don’t give a damn what Bridget and Christian Ziegler do in their spare time. If they want to bugger goats, and they’ve somehow obtained the goat’s consent, then bless their hearts, and more power to ‘em. It might not be how you or I might entertain ourselves, but it’s a free country, right? If everyone’s OK with what’s happening and the goat’s not being harmed, what’s the problem?

But if this scenario were to appear in a book,

it would certainly be banned by Moms for Liberty, which has called for sexually explicit material to be removed from school libraries, especially those that involve same-sex relationships of any kind. The group has been at the forefront of the movement to remove LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum from classrooms. Ziegler, who spoke at both Moms for Liberty conferences I attended, now serves as a vice president at the Leadership Institute, the decades-old organization that trains conservatives to run for office and has been a sponsor of Moms for Liberty conferences for two years running. She has been praised lavishly by Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, who once said, “We should have her in every county!”
Today’s news coincides with the end of Ziegler’s term as Sarasota school board chair. In a Facebook post yesterday, she listed her accomplishments, which included “Terminated ‘Gender Diverse Guidelines,’ “Eliminated ‘Equity’ Committee,” and “Eliminated ‘equity’ policy & position.”
“I am optimistic that we have many of the right people who are willing to roll up their sleeves, and make the tough decisions necessary to improve the areas that have needed attention for over a decade,” she wrote in the post. “If each board member remains mission-focused and doesn’t waiver in their responsibility of accountability, then the sky is the limit!”
Neither one of the Zieglers has commented on any of the allegations.

And there was more information that came to light over the weekend:

New details made public over the weekend via police documents of a rape investigation have added fresh fuel to the political firestorm surrounding the chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Christian Ziegler, and his wife Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of the far-right Moms for Liberty, which engages in book-banning efforts, attacks on public education, religious moralizing, and the promotion of fascist ideology in chapters nationwide.
After an unnamed longtime associate accused Christian Ziegler of rape last week, the emergence of a police search warrant and associated affidavit showed that the alleged victim said she had engaged in consensual three-way sexual relations with the Zieglers in the past but on the day of the assault, on Oct 3., tried to call off the encounter because Bridget would not be there to participate.
"Sorry I was mostly in for her," the victim said, according to text messages quoted in the affadavit.

So, Bridget Ziegler, who co-founded a group that, among other things, is virulently anti-LGBTQ, was engaged in a sexual relationship that included her husband and another woman who was “mostly in for her.”

Curious…could that be hypocrisy I smell?

White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual hypocrites.

In and of itself, that sort of relationship, if consensual, which for the most part seemed to be the case, shouldn’t attract attention as anything illegal, immoral, and/or unethical. It occurred between consenting adults…evidently up until October 3rd, when Christian Ziegler refused to take “no” for an answer and raped the unnamed woman.

Then it appears Christian Ziegler may have decided to take something that wasn’t his.

As might be imagined, the high profiles maintained by both Zieglers have resulted in accusations of hypocrisy and calls for resignations.

(Regardless of political party, we certainly do love a good sex scandal, don’t we? Yes, we do.)

The high-profile political work of the Zieglers—who rail against the sexual identities and lifestyle choices of others and who have been openly hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, often suggesting queer people are somehow deviant or morally problematic—has resulted in my cries of hypocrisy and calls for Christian's resignation.
"Allegations of rape and sexual battery are severe and should be taken seriously," said Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried in a statement on Thursday. "I applaud the accuser's bravery in coming forward against a political figure as powerful as Christian Ziegler, and I trust that the Sarasota Police Department will conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations of criminal behavior."….

While many tried not to leap into the fray so as not to appear to be piling on, others, including Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, demanded Christian Ziegler’s immediate resignation.

After all, if good White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals don’t throw the fallen among them under the bus, the media could come for them next.

Fried said that "what happens behind closed doors is Christian and Bridget's personal business," but added that she did "find it interesting that two people who are so obsessed with banning books about gay penguins might be engaged in a non-traditional sexual relationship," referring to a children's book about gay parents which has been targeted by Republicans for banning in schools in Florida and elsewhere.
"As leaders in the Florida GOP and Moms for Liberty," said Fried, "the Zieglers have made a habit out of attacking anything they perceive as going against 'family values'—be it reproductive rights or the existence of LGBTQ+ Floridians. The level of hypocrisy in this situation is stunning."

Ms. Fried is, of course, spot on. The level of hypocrisy exhibited by the Zieglers is off the charts. The couple, who publicly stand for Conservative “Christian” values- family, traditional sexual relationships, anti-LGBTQ, anti-reproductive rights- have themselves been engaged in very untraditional sexual behavior.

I find nothing wrong with what they’ve been doing behind closed doors. By all indications, the three individuals involved have been consenting adults…until October 3rd, that is.

It would’ve been easy to laugh this off as pure hypocrisy and have a lot of fun at the Zieglers’ expense. Now, though, there’s a rape allegation being made against Christian Ziegler, which makes this whole episode significantly less humorous.

According to reporting from the Washington Post, the nameless woman had agreed to have a sexual encounter with the Zieglers. She backed out when Christian Ziegler informed her that Bridget couldn’t make it.

In her affidavit, the woman says she told Christian Ziegler, “Sorry, I was mostly in for her.” Then the woman alleges that Christian Ziegler showed up at her apartment uninvited and raped her.

In a 911 call two days after the alleged assault, a recording of which was also obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability and shared with The Post, a friend of the woman asked emergency responders to check on the woman at her apartment. According to the call’s recording, the friend said the woman hadn’t shown up for work for two days. When the friend called the woman, the woman sounded “drunk” and was “slurring her words,” the friend told dispatchers. “She told me she was raped and that she’s scared to leave her house,” the friend added, according to the recording of the call.

Bridget Ziegler, who isn’t named in the rape allegation against her husband, is a co-founder of Moms for Liberty and has worked closely with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on anti-LGBTQ legislation. Mrs. Ziegler

“confirmed having a sexual encounter with the victim and Christian over a year ago and that it only happened one time,” the affidavit says.
News reports emerged several days ago about the allegations of rape, but more records were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request late Friday and reported by several Florida news outlets. They include details of recorded conversations via Instagram and phone calls between the woman and Christian Ziegler that detectives obtained. Police have filed search warrants for Ziegler’s phone, email and other devices. The Sarasota Police Department did not reply to several requests for comment.

Beyond the tawdry aspect of the allegations, of course, is the fact that Christian Ziegler is entitled to the presumption of innocence and the all the protections of the due course of law. There’s also a woman claiming to have been raped, and that must be handled with delicacy and seriousness.

While the legal aspect of all of this plays out, there’s the reality the Zieglers may have been living a life of profound hypocrisy- one set of rules for me, another much stricter set for thee. As often happens with Conservatives demanding that others toe the line in the sand they’ve drawn, they refuse to live by their own rules.

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I don’t despise the Zieglers as much as I feel sorry for them. They’re sad, pathetic creatures who can only build themselves up by tearing others down. Then, they often partake in the same behavior they demean others for engaging in. It’s uniquely dismal and deplorable. Worse, there’s no justification for it.

I don’t know enough about the situation to judge either of the Zieglers, save for the astonishing degree of hypocrisy both appear to be guilty of. I don’t know how they’ll reconcile that because “hypocrite” is a label that can be extraordinarily difficult to remove. Even if Christian Ziegler is exonerated of the rape allegation, the Zieglers will still be stained as hypocrites no matter what else they may do in Florida.

And they’ll deserve that label. If you’re going to demand that others live by your code, you’d best be living by it as well…or plan on being a laughing stock once your insincerity and duplicity are exposed.