Moms For Liberty Chapter Chairperson Takes Off Clothing At School Board Meeting

Beth Bourne, who has in the past come under fire for over-the-top anti-LGBTQ+ stunts, removed her pants and top at a Davis school board meeting.

Davis School Board Meeting

Moms for Liberty has made a name for itself by storming local school board meetings to rail against LGBTQ+-inclusive policies, often with fiery—and sometimes bizarre—performances. But on September 18, the spectacle hit a new low. At a Davis School Board meeting, Beth Bourne, president of the Yolo County Moms for Liberty chapter, launched into a tirade against transgender students in locker rooms and bathrooms before abruptly stripping off her top and pants. The stunt left board members stunned, forced the meeting into recess, and underscored just how unhinged the movement’s tactics have become.

“Hi, good evening, I’m a parent in the Davis Unified School District and I’m here today to talk to you about the policies you have in the locker rooms for students,” Bourne began. “Right now we require our students to undress for PE class, and I’m just going to give you an idea of what that looks like while I address.” As she spoke, she stripped off her top.

She continued: “So right now, this school district is saying that depending on a child’s transgender identity, they could pick which bathroom they want. Right now we have children self-identifying into different bathrooms…” At that point she began removing her pants, prompting groans and visible discomfort from board members and attendees. “No, you cannot. We’re going to recess,” one member interjected, as Bourne shouted about her First Amendment rights.

You can watch the video of the exchange here:

This was hardly Bourne’s first brush with notoriety for outlandish, anti-LGBTQ+ theatrics. Last year she went viral after berating drag queens in a hotel lobby in Hawaii, demanding a refund for the mere act of encountering them. The clip drew a petition to oust her from her staff position at UC Davis. The university held off, but she eventually lost the job anyway—thanks to Trump’s education cuts, which she publicly cheered even as she admitted they cost her own livelihood.

Bourne’s crusade against LGBTQ+ rights has also been deeply personal—and cruel. Her own child came out to her as nonbinary, a revelation that, according to them, only hardened her extremism. “I was ready to come out to everybody because I had been holding it in for a really long time,” the now-adult child told the Sacramento Bee. “From my coming out to my moving out, her views that she expressed to me started to get more aggressive and more extreme.”

Despite Bourne’s circus-like theatrics, Moms for Liberty’s influence is no joke. In Florida—the group’s launchpad—Governor Ron DeSantis has embraced their agenda wholesale, codifying everything from “Don’t Say Gay”-style legislation to mandates that force transgender teachers to misgender themselves in their own classrooms. One trans woman teacher was compelled to stand before her students and introduce herself as “Mr.”—a state-sanctioned humiliation. Yet outside of Florida, especially in blue states, their policies have failed to gain traction. That failure may explain why activists like Beth Bourne resort to ever more extreme stunts: in places where their agenda doesn’t stick, spectacle becomes the only weapon left.