Moms for Liberty cofounder trolled with Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” at school board meeting

Students, parents, and community members of Sarasota, Florida have continued their calls for anti-LGBTQ+ school board member Bridget Ziegler to resign in the wake of her hypocritical admission that she engaged in sexual relations with another woman.

Ziegler co-founded the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Moms for Liberty, championed Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, and is a leader in the so-called “parent’s rights” movement against LGBTQ+ youth. The public comment period calling for her resignation lasted almost three hours and included dozens of speakers, according to The Daily Beast.

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He also offered his accuser money in a secretly recorded phone conversation.

One resident, Sarah Kessler, has gained attention for trolling Ziegler by standing at the podium and reading out lyrics from Katy Perry’s hit song, “I Kissed a Girl.” The audience laughed as she recited the lyrics to the song’s chorus, “I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chapstick.” She then put on her own chapstick, joking that her lips were dry.

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Ziegler – who has refused to step down – was reportedly unfazed by the commenters and did not even acknowledge the scandal at the meeting.

One trans resident, India Miller, spoke about being disowned by her family after her church tried to perform an exorcism on her. She said she was homeless and a victim of anti-trans violence.

“It was hard,” she said, “but what’s harder for me is living here. That we’re doing this. We’re pretending there’s something wrong with people with how they’re born.”

She then addressed Ziegler directly: “Why are you here? Everyone here asked you to leave… Are you that invaluable? Really? You know you’re not. You have a political agenda and you’re trying to make money and you’re doing it off the backs of students, human beings like me.”

A 12-year-old queer student also shared their fears that Ziegler would continue to push for policies that would make it harder for them to learn “because of who I am.”

Retired deputy superintendent of Maryland schools John Smeallie told Ziegler she is “unfit to serve on any board” due to her history of “belittling” LGBTQ+ people and “creating fear among students and staff who are part of this community.”

He then called out her hypocrisy. “Despite your attacks on the LGTBQ-plus community, it would appear that you are a part of it. Certainly a B, maybe a plus.”

Ziegler admitted to having sexual relations with another woman after the woman accused Ziegler’s husband, Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, of rape. The alleged victim told investigators she has had threesomes with the couple. She alleges that after she recently canceled on Christian because Bridget couldn’t make it, he showed up at her apartment and assaulted her.

Bridget Ziegler is not implicated in the alleged rape, but she has since admitted to detectives that she, her husband, and her husband’s accuser were involved in a consensual sexual encounter over a year ago.

Despite refusing to resign from the board, Bridget Ziegler has resigned from her role as director of the School Board Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute, an organization that trains conservative activists. And near the end of December, the Florida Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Christian Ziegler and strip him of authority as the party’s chair amid the rape investigation.