Utah student athlete threatened after school board member implies she's trans

A Utah high school athlete is under police protection after receiving threats because a state school board member shared a picture of the girl on social media and implied she’s transgender. Now the teen’s parents are demanding the board member’s resignation.

Utah State Board of Education member Natalie Cline posted a picture of a Granite School District’s basketball team Tuesday on her public Facebook page with the caption “Girls’ basketball.” One of the players has very short hair and is described by her parents as a tomboy. She is not trans, but the implication from Cline and commenters was that she is and therefore shouldn’t be on the team under Utah law.

“The comment section quickly became filled with people calling out the player, naming her, threatening her and referring to her with vulgar language,” The Salt Lake Tribune reports. “Some identified her school and said they were going to call the principal.” The Tribune and other local media did not identify the player or her school.

Cline took the post down Wednesday and apologized to the student, while still using the anti-trans language for which she’s become known. “She does have a larger build, like her parents,” Cline wrote. “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.”

The girl’s parents, Al and Rachel van der Beek, want Cline to resign from the board. “To look at someone’s outer appearance and make an assumption that they’re either playing in the right arena or not, based on how someone looks, I don’t think is appropriate,” Rachel van der Beek told TV station KSL.

The post “was cyberbullying at its finest,” Al van der Beek said. He noted that his daughter “cut her hair short because that’s how she feels comfortable, she wears clothes that are a little baggy, she goes to the gym all the time, so she’s got muscles.”

The student’s school district, located in Salt Lake County, has provided extra security for her, including police protection, due to the harassment she’s received, the Tribune reports.

Cline’s behavior has been condemned by others as well, even by the legislator who sponsored the state’s anti-trans sports law. State Rep. Kera Birkeland, a Republican, commented on Cline’s post by saying it was “in poor taste,” adding, “Do you know if this KID is a boy or girl? This child is a minor being mocked and called out without any facts or proof.” Of course, that assumes it would be OK to mock the girl if she were trans.

Birkeland’s blanket ban on trans girls’ participation in girls’ school sports became law in 2022 when legislators overrode Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto. The ban has been blocked by a court while a lawsuit against it proceeds, but under another state regulation, trans girls who want to compete in girls’ sports have to go before a commission and document that they’ve been on hormone therapy for at least a year, the Tribune notes.

Birkeland’s comment on Cline’s post said the commission has barred at least four students from joining teams that don’t match with their sex assigned at birth. However, she may have violated state privacy laws by revealing that information, even without naming the students, according to the Tribune.

Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, both Republicans, called out fellow GOPer Cline for her post. “We were stunned to learn of the unconscionable behavior of board member Cline and others toward a high school student today,” they said in a joint statement released Wednesday. “The last thing our children need is an elected official harassing them on social media. Sadly, this is not the first time that board member Cline has embarrassed the state of Utah and State Board of Education. We urge the State Board of Education to hold her accountable and we commend Granite School District for taking swift action to protect this student’s safety and well-being.”

Henderson clapped back further on X, writing, “Let’s be really clear: that post was inexcusable, utterly revolting behavior by a state school board member and every adult who piled on with a despicable comment — WHETHER OR NOT it was about a biological girl.”

Cline was elected to the state school board in 2020. Her more-than-questionable actions have included a Facebook post last year that said teachers were “complicit in the grooming of children” and “brainwashing them into queer, gender bending ideologies.” She has also accused one teacher of being a communist and critiqued the Black Lives Matter movement, in addition to posting other anti-LGBTQ+ comments. There have been complaints from the public and investigations by the board, but her only punishment to date has been one reprimand.

Pictured, left: Natalie Cline