TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida’s top-ranked Republican party official isn’t backing down after getting “attacked” by LGBTQ media outlets over his recent comments.
Last week, Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler indicated he has no problem if some residents choose to leave the state – namely, those who think sexualized topics belong in elementary school classrooms.
“If a Democrat Voter is passionate and perverted enough to support the sexualization of kids during school in grades as early as Kindergarten, then I would agree that Florida is probably not the best fit for them," Ziegler told the Washington Examiner on August 8.
Ziegler was responding to a new survey from UCLA’s Williams Institute – which is dedicated to studying homosexuality and gender confusion – that indicated nearly 40 percent of Florida parents “considered” leaving the state over recently enacted restrictions concerning sexualized classroom instruction in public schools.
Notably, the survey participants were skewed significantly toward the ideological Left. UCLA’s researchers disclosed that 42 percent of respondents were Democrats, compared to just 24 percent Republican and 30 percent independent. Other respondents identified as a “Democratic Socialist” or members of the “Green Party.”
Ziegler pointed out that “over 60 percent of voters support the actual language in the law, including 55 percent of Democrats,” referencing a Public Opinion Strategies poll from March 2022.
The Florida GOP Chair’s comments are not likely to disappoint those within his party. The Williams Institute survey found that 90 percent of Republicans surveyed said they approved of the state’s prohibition on teachers talking to their students about sexual preferences and gender confusion.
“WE STAND WITH PARENTS, NOT PERVERTS”
Subsequent media coverage from Left-wing outlets misrepresented Ziegler’s comments. Pink News inaccurately claimed Ziegler had labeled all parents with homosexual or gender confused children as “perverts.” LGBTQ Nation wrote that “Parents who support LGBTQ+ students' well-being are just perverts, according to [Ziegler].” Several other outlets also framed the comments similarly.
In response to the media coverage, the Florida GOP Chair clarified his remarks while doubling down on his actual message.
“I saw that some groups and individuals who openly endorse the sexual grooming of young children attacked me for that comment,” Ziegler told The Florida Standard. “It’s not anti-LGBTQ to be anti-sexualizing kids. I would welcome straight radical leftists who want to sexualize kids to move out of Florida too.
“I stand behind my comments and would like to be very clear – in Florida, we stand with parents, not perverts.”
