Photo courtesy Twitter: Bridget Ziegler.

That Sarasota’s most anti-LGBTQ School Board member endured a sex scandal that raised questions about her own sexuality will some day become old news. It’s hard to imagine when, but the time drifts farther away every time Bridget Ziegler makes herself the face of another anti-trans policy.

It’s hard to imagine what motivated her most recent headline-grabbing action. Ziegler pushed the School Board to approve a resolution challenging protections for transgender students issued by President Joe Biden’s administration. I’ll try to avoid the particulars of this controversial stance and just dissect the frustrating way this choice of battles prolongs a many-times-extended lifespan on a story any other politician would want to go away.

Until last October, Ziegler’s local and national brand was an angry mom concerned what immoral values might be thrust upon children in classrooms. Ziegler over two full terms on the School Board essentially workshopped and distilled the messaging we now refer to as ‘parental rights,’ and even took it national.

This branding, love it or absolutely hate it, proved unquestionably effective. It tied together otherwise disparate topics that had social conservatives up in arms, from critical race theory to mask mandates to transgender bathroom access. Suddenly, none of this was about what progressives considered social progress or basic science. It was all indoctrinating children with a political agenda contrary to family values parents, at least decent ones, instilled at home.

In Florida, this birthed Moms For Liberty and created a better vehicle for conservative education activists than past messaging on local control or cultural superiority ever could.

But last fall, a scandal exposed Ziegler as an imperfect standard bearer. Revelations about her private life showed the values in her home weren’t as sanctimonious as her rhetoric. Regardless whether one held conservative or liberal views on the morality of activity between consenting adults (importantly, Bridget Ziegler was never even accused of violating consent), observers from the left and right condemned her as a hypocrite, especially on matters related to LGBTQ identity.

How could someone engaging in threesomes with another woman champion the “don’t say gay” law? How could someone who allowed the censorship of a valedictorian discussing his sexuality at graduation so casually engage in and accept adulterous activity? For months, the scandal overtook public comment at School Board meetings. And unlike past issues setting a faction of the public’s hair on fire, the nastiest remarks targeted Ziegler week after week.

Maybe raising a stink about letting transgender students use their preferred bathroom stall — an issue Sarasota schools contended with at Pine View School eight years ago before it became a far-right cause du jour — is Ziegler’s way of filling the chamber with her own mob again. But inevitably, attacking LGBTQ students turns renewed attention toward the chasm between how Ziegler demands others live their lives and how she has lived her own.

I’m certain critics will say Biden bears responsible for the timing. His administration chose to press forward with an admittedly controversial interpretation of Title IX protections during an election year, likely hoping the progressive base votes this fall. But Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis is already fighting this fight, perhaps with similar political motivation. Both sides war from philosophical bunkers, uncompromised by personal sexual scandals.

Some see this as Ziegler’s attempt to curry fresh favor with national conservatives again. But the only outlets outside Florida who paid attention to this resolution were critical (disclaimer: that includes an article I wrote for The Advocate). Ziegler made fresh headlines, but they only further her reputation as an unrepentant hypocrite, no longer as a champion of parental rights.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA.

Photo courtesy Twitter: Bridget Ziegler.