Utah official censured for falsely suggesting teenage girl is transgender

Utah’s Board of Education voted to censure one of its members and called for her resignation on Wednesday after she appeared to falsely suggest a teenage girl was transgender on social media.

Natalie Cline, the censured board member, posted a flyer for a Salt Lake City high school basketball team on Facebook last week, suggestively writing: “Girls’ basketball…” Although the post was later deleted — and it was revealed that the girl is not trans — Cline received a chorus of criticism from Utahns across the state last week, including from Gov. Spencer Cox.

Utah State Board of Education member Natalie Cline. (Utah State Board of Education)

In addition to being censured, Cline will be stripped of her committee assignments, prohibited from attending the board’s advisory committee meetings and forbidden from placing items on the board’s agenda, the board said.

“The Board would like to extend its deepest apologies to those harmed by this conduct, in particular the student who was targeted because of Member Cline’s post,” the board said in a statement on Wednesday. “No individual, especially a child, should be subject to such comments and judgement.”

The board added, “We hope that the actions taken today can provide support for the student and the family.”

Cline did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but she criticized the board before its unanimous vote was made public. She described the process to oust her as “election interference” and criticized the board for what she characterized as a rushed decision.

“The @utboardofed is moving so quickly that they are making it impossible for me to read through all the materials they have provided, gather evidence, draft a response, and prepare for a hearing,” she wrote on Facebook Wednesday. “Hardened criminals get better due process than I am being provided.”

Cline apologized for the basketball post last week while simultaneously defending herself, saying that the girl featured in the flyer “does have a larger build, like her parents.”

In a letter published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday, the girl’s parents called Cline’s apology halfhearted and also urged her to resign.

“Ms. Cline did the very thing we teach our children not to do in terms of bullying, mocking and spreading rumors and gossip about others,” the letter said. “Ms. Cline did the very thing we teach our children not to do — she blasted social media without fact checking, which ultimately led to a barrage of hateful and despicable comments that were directed at our daughter that lasted for more than 16 hours.”

Cline was elected to her first term on Utah’s state education board in 2020. While in office, she has made controversial remarks regarding LGBTQ people, prompting prior calls to resign, according to local media reports.

But Cline’s post last week elicited outsize ire across the state, including from Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. The two Republicans weighed in on the matter, saying Cline’s actions had “embarrassed the state of Utah and State Board of Education.”

“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 last week. “The last thing our children need is an elected official harassing them on social media.”

Without naming Cline, some LGBTQ advocates suggested that her post was a result of the anti-LGBTQ measures that have been proposed and passed in the state in recent years. Utah has enacted three bills targeting the transgender community in the last three years, including a measure that restricts trans athletes’ participation in girls’ and women’s sports. Last month, Cox signed a law that limits trans people’s use of some public restrooms.

“When those in positions of power single out and attack a particular group, it undermines all of our rights. Those attacks also create hostility for people in that group that doesn’t stop with the effects of the laws,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah said in a statement Thursday. “Every elected official in Utah who has championed, voted for, or signed anti-LGBTQ+ laws bears responsibility for fostering an environment where transgender or nonbinary people, and even people perceived to be so, endure bullying and harassment from people who feel empowered and justified by the laws on the books.”

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com