"What's a three-way?"
That's the question posed to Jessica Thomason, a mother of two in Sarasota, Florida, by her sixth-grade daughter amid the shocking fallout of the Zieglers. That's the conservative power couple involving Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Florida GOP who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman who was allegedly having a ménage à trois with him and his wife, Bridget, co-founder of the parents' rights group Moms for Liberty.
Writing that out is confusing enough. But it pales in comparison to the apparent confusion among Florida students, their families, and the teachers who can't answer mounting questions because of a law pushed by Bridget Ziegler herself. As my colleague Kiera Butler reports, that law is Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" mandate, which forbids teachers from talking about same-sex relationships in virtually all contexts. One teacher told Kiera: "Teachers are demoralized right now, and they have to focus on all these very vague laws to make sure that they’re not teaching something wrong."
The reticence to discuss the scandal, both with students and colleagues, because of speech-restricting laws crafted by conservatives just like the Zieglers is understandable. That they're now at the center of a rape accusation and alleged same-sex relationship, all while condemning conversations about same-sex anything, is just more evidence of the bad-faith nature behind so many parents' rights efforts.
—Inae Oh
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