'The hypocrisy is just off the charts': Zieglers face reckoning after moral crusading

Earlier this year, Bridget Ziegler attracted attention when she posted an image of herself on social media wearing a shirt emblazoned with “REAL WOMEN AREN’T MEN.”

Ziegler, a Sarasota County School Board member and co-founder of conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, was responding to a backlash against Bud Light for a marketing campaign featuring a transgender influencer.

It's the quintessential culture war battle that has become increasingly common in recent years, and Ziegler has been at the forefront of such clashes, along with her husband, Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler.

The Republican power couple have emerged as leading advocates in Florida for a new wave of conservative moral crusading largely centered around LGBTQ issues, especially in schools.

Now, Christian Ziegler has been accused of sexual battery by a woman who previously had sex with both Zieglers, according to police documents. Sarasota Police are investigating an alleged assault in early October when Christian Ziegler and the reported victim were alone at the woman’s apartment.

Police released heavily redacted documents Thursday with few details about the criminal allegation, which is still under investigation. A search warrant affidavit later obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability and provided to the USA TODAY Network - Florida provides more information about the encounter and the relationship between the woman and the Zieglers.

Through his attorney, Christian Ziegler adamantly denies any criminal wrongdoing.

The affidavit says both Zieglers made plans to have sex with the alleged victim, who canceled after Bridget Ziegler couldn't make it. Christian Ziegler showed up anyway and was standing outside the alleged victim's apartment when she went to walk her dog.

"Christian entered the apartment, bent the victim over the bar stool," a detective wrote in the affidavit. The alleged victim – who has known Ziegler for 20 years – says he then sexually assaulted her.

The affidavit also detailed subsequent conversations between Ziegler and the alleged victim where she confronts him and he denies sexually assaulting her. The document says Ziegler told detectives the sexual encounter was consensual and that he took video of it, which he deleted but later uploaded to a Google Drive.

Bridget Ziegler spoke to detectives "and she confirmed having a sexual encounter with the victim and Christian over a year ago and that it only happened one time," according to the affidavit.

Even if no criminal charges are filed, the case is being closely watched because the Zieglers have made sexual issues so central to their political brand.

There has been a torrent of commentary about the Zieglers’ alleged “hypocrisy,” especially because of their perceived anti-LGBTQ activism.

Moms for Liberty has been prominent nationally in debates around transgender school policies and other LGBTQ discussions, while the Florida GOP has heavily promoted these issues. Bridget Ziegler stepped down from the Moms for Liberty board of directors in 2021.

“The hypocrisy is just off the charts and that’s why this has resonated,” said Ron Filipkowski, a former GOP activist in Sarasota County who broke with the party and now is a prominent social media figure.

Filipkowski has known both Zieglers for years. He remembers when Christian Ziegler was a young party activist just starting to make appearances at Sarasota GOP meetings.

Clearly ambitious, Filipkowski said, Ziegler “immediately started working the room figuring out who the power players and influencers were.”

Ziegler worked for U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Longboat Key Republican, and later served on the Sarasota County Commission. He has been active with the Florida GOP for more than a decade, serving as the elected GOP state committeeman for Sarasota County and vice chair of the state party before taking over as chair in February.

Ziegler dove into cultural issues more forcefully when they exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Filipkowski said.

Bridget Ziegler waded into transgender restroom use issue

Bridget Ziegler had joined the Sarasota County School Board in 2014 and occasionally waded into polarizing issues in the years leading up to the pandemic, including a hot button debate about transgender bathroom use in Sarasota schools.

The pandemic led to a wave of conservative activism around schools, and both Zieglers – who have young children they often highlight in debates about education policies – became leading advocates for the education culture war agenda championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which attracted the most national attention with a bill limiting discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

Bridget Ziegler stood behind DeSantis as he signed the legislation, derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – a nickname that still irks its supporters. The governor later appointed her to a board overseeing the special district that governs Disney’s properties in Central Florida. Disney has been battling with DeSantis over the company’s opposition to the measure, now in state law.

Along the way, the Zieglers often clashed with Democrats, LGBTQ activists and other critics of their agenda. Those critics have been quick to bash the Zieglers in the wake of the latest allegations, often pointing to alleged hypocrisy.

“The allegations that have been made are incredibly serious and deserve a full investigation,” said Brandon Wolf, who fought against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill as the former press secretary for Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ rights group.

He added: “The Zieglers have spent years telling people how to live and who to be. They’ve been the tip of the spear for right wing extremism in a state being hijacked by the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.”

Christian Ziegler has sparred with Wolf and others on the X social media platform, responding to one of Wolf’s posts criticizing DeSantis’ LGBTQ legislation with, “Leave the kids alone and there would be no issue.”

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a gay former Democratic state House member who is now running for a state Senate seat, shared a series of comments Ziegler made about him on X, including one calling him and others “leftist perverts.”

“Only our justice system can determine guilt on criminal allegations of rape and sexual assault but the harm they inflicted with their hypocrisy and their rhetoric and their policies is undisputable,” Smith said.

Shevrin Jones, a gay Democratic state senator, shared a post on X about the allegations against the Zieglers and commented “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Moms for Liberty posted on X in support of Bridget Ziegler before the affidavit was released, deleted the tweet, and then reposted with the replies disabled "because we won’t be part of allowing the trolls to denigrate women any further today."

"#StrongWomen scare those that seek to destroy our country. We stand with (Ziegler) & every other badass woman fighting for kids & America," the second post said.

DeSantis says Ziegler should step down as state GOP chair

Democrats aren’t the only ones speaking out: DeSantis called on Christian Ziegler to resign as Florida GOP chair.

"I think he should step aside and think he should attend to that," DeSantis told reporters following his debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday. "He's innocent until proven guilty, but we just can't have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny."

FOX News debate moderator Sean Hannity asked DeSantis and Newsom about “parental rights” during the debate on Thursday night, and DeSantis pulled out a copy of a page from the book “Gender Queer,” which he said can be found in some California schools.

“Florida, this is not consistent with our standards,” he said.

The Ziegler scandal also could complicate efforts by DeSantis and other Republicans to continue campaigning on LGBTQ culture war issues.

But Lee County GOP Chair Michael Thompson said the party would continue to push for traditional values.

“I don’t believe it’s going to stop anything the Republican party is doing or advocating for,” he said. “That’s the beauty of having a party. It’s not one person everyone rallies around. It’s the entire party.”

And Thompson believes the Zieglers are the victims of a “political hit job.”

“You’ve got a great all-American family there in the Zieglers, so what do we do? Let’s destroy them,” he said before the affidavit was released. “They’re out there advocating for children and traditional American values, so let’s give them a black eye.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Culture warriors Christian and Bridget Ziegler accused of 'hypocrisy'