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This week’s Central Florida Tourism Oversight District meeting was supposed to be pretty straightforward. The Board appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received a report alleging that Disney World bought influence with the former Reedy Creek Improvement District Board by giving them season passes to Disney World and discounts on merchandise, food, and hotels. None of these revelations is necessarily new, but the Central Flordia Tourism Oversight Board would use it to bash the Walt Disney Company and then vote to send the report to Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for further legislative actions.
Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr and Disney
That’s how the meeting was supposed to go, but outside forces interfered with that plan. Board member Bridget Ziegler attended the meeting via Zoom but quickly became the focus of the meeting, especially during the public comment section. Ziegler’s husband, state GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, is accused of raping a woman in Sarasota. During a police interview in November on the alleged incident, Bridget Ziegler told police that she, her husband, and the alleged victim had previously had a consensual sexual encounter.
The admission of a threesome would not necessarily have been news, except for who Bridget Ziegler is and what she has been fighting that made it news. Ziegler co-founded Moms for Liberty, a group instrumental in banning books dealing with LGBTQ+ topics. But Ziegler didn’t stop there. She was also instrumental in the passage of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. She was so crucial to its passes that she stood behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he signed it into law.
Credit: Disney Parks Blog
None of this was lost on Celebration resident Debra McDonald when she took the microphone to open the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District meeting this week. McDonald is a former stockbroker who has lived in the Disney-built community for 25 years. McDonald started by quoting the First Amendment of the Constitution. Then, McDonald turned her attention to Ziegler on a blank Zoom screen labeled with her initials BZ.
It’s not my place to judge her behavior or that of her husband. They deserve their day in court. Mrs. Ziegler has not made Florida a better place. She is the face of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ revolution, which brought this board to where it is, to this place today, and has caused untold harm in our classrooms and in our communities. Bridget Ziegler’s role in demonizing members of the LGBTQ community is hurting the state, while she has apparently been a part of the letter B in that group, Bridget, you need to do what is best for the greater good. We live in a free Florida, not an autocratic pseudo-Christian dictatorship. What Mrs. Ziegler does privately with other consenting adults is no more our business than it is the behavior of the other consenting adults. It is the rank hypocrisy of attacking others for what she personally practices that should disqualify her for a position of public trust.
Credit: Disney
After the meeting, McDonald told the Daily Beast of a friend who was forced to flee the state. This person received the “Legacy Award,” given to less than one percent of Disney World cast members. However, McDonald’s friend left after two decades of service to Disney World because “he is gay and didn’t feel safe, welcome.”
Governor DeSantis has called on Christian Ziegler to resign as Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, and others have called on Bridget Ziegler to resign from the Sarasota County School Board. Christian Ziegler has denied the allegations against him. Bridget Ziegler has yet to comment on the allegations against her husband or if she plans on resigning from the new Disney Board.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
