Utah School Board Member Is Censored After Questioning Student's Gender

A member of the Utah State Board of Education was stripped of her committee assignments and asked to resign this week after questioning the gender of a high school basketball player in a Facebook post.

Natalie Cline, the board member, posted a flyer for a Salt Lake County high school basketball team on Feb. 6 with the caption “Basketball for girls”, suggesting that one of the girls in the image was not female. The message, which was reported by KSL TV, a television station in Salt Lake City, has since been removed.

The board said Wednesday that, after an investigation, it had decided to censure Ms. Cline, request her resignation and ban her from attending board committee meetings because she disrespected students' privacy and publicly exposed them in a negative light. The Utah Legislature passed a resolution Thursday against Ms. Cline for her “abhorrent actions' that had resulted in 'relentless intimidation and bullying, including threats of violence' against a student.

The parents of the child targeted in the post, Al and Rachel van der Beek, wrote in an editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune Thursday that Mrs. Cline had subjected their 16-year-old daughter to “unwarranted and cruel public ridicule.”

Ms. Cline's social media post sparked “a barrage of hateful and despicable comments directed at our daughter that lasted more than sixteen hours,” Mr. and Mrs. Van der Beek wrote. “It was one of the most painful things we have had to endure as we read comment after comment about unwarranted judgment, ignorance and hatred by adults and parents who hid behind their computers and bullied our child.” Ms. Cline's conduct would be “unjustified” even if it were based on facts, they wrote, even if it were not.

Mr. and Mrs. Van der Beek wrote that their daughter was “naturally strong and athletic and worked very hard to become the top scorer on her team this year.”

They continued, “She is beautiful, happy, friendly, kind, smart and has the biggest heart.”

Several state legislatures have become more hostile toward transgender people in recent years, passing laws aimed at limiting their access to health care, bathroom access and participation in school sports. More than 425 bills aimed at restricting the rights of LGBTQ people are being considered by state lawmakers, This is reported by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The increased attention to transgender issues, a political and cultural flashpoint in the United States, has put transgender people in the spotlight, with some reporting increased levels of harassment and discomfort. In January, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, a Republican, signed a bill banning transgender people from using bathrooms, shower rooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, with some exceptions. Last year, Governor Cox signed a bill banning minors from receiving gender transition health care, including puberty suppressant medications, surgery and other medically accepted treatments.

In a survey of more than 92,000 transgender and non-binary Americans in late 2022, nearly a third of respondents said they had been verbally harassed in the past year, and 3 percent of respondents said they had been physically assaulted in the past year because of their behavior. gender identity.

Ms. Cline, who was elected to the board in 2020, did not respond to a request for comment early Friday. In a sequel Facebook post on February 8, she apologized for “the negative attention” her post attracted.

“We live in strange times when it is normal to pause and wonder if people are what they say they are because of the push to normalize transgenderism in our society,” Ms. Cline wrote in that post . She added that the student she referred to “had a larger build, just like her parents.”

The Utah School Board of Education apologized to the student. “No individual, and especially no child, should be subjected to such comments and judgments,” the board statement said. Mrs. Cline, in a letter posted on Facebook claimed Wednesday that the board's investigation was rushed and deprived it of “a fair process for dealing with allegations.”

The Utah House resolution was signed by Governor Cox on Thursday. “The vast majority of Utahns agree that Natalie Cline's conduct was unacceptable,” he wrote in a statement. “I have spoken to the student's parents and I am heartbroken for this family.”