Cis “tomboy” athlete requires police protection after GOP official implies she’s transgender

A Republican elected official in Utah has endangered the safety of a cisgender girl’s basketball player after falsely implying on her social media that the player was transgender. The official’s claim has surprisingly angered transphobic Republicans — including the state’s governor — and resulted in police having to protect the girl from people angered by the social media post.

On Tuesday, Utah Department of Education board member Natalie Cline (R) posted an image on her Facebook page of a Granite School District high school Instagram post showing two girls’ basketball team players. Cline, who has a history of publishing anti-LGBTQ+ posts, implied that one of the larger-bodied players was trans, writing, “Girls’ basketball…” The Daily Beast reported.

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The larger-bodied athlete is not transgender. Her parents have said she’s a “tomboy.”

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“She cut her hair short because that’s how she feels comfortable. She wears clothes that are baggy. She goes to the gym all the time, so she’s got muscles,” her father Al van der Beek told NBC News.

Nonetheless, the post caused a “firestorm,” Cline said, as multiple people shared it online and left “disgusting” comments, the girl’s father told KSL-TV.

Cline later deleted the post and apologized, but blamed transgender people and their allies for her post.

“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,” Cline wrote on her Facebook page. “Sadly, our good faith efforts to be accepting of differences has, at time, been taken advantage of causing a loss of trust which leads to suspicious about girls who are more buff than most. This is a sad consequence of the trans movement being foisted upon us.”

Cline’s post brought so much harassment upon the girl that the school district had to hire police protection to ensure her safety.

The girl’s father said Cline’s apology wasn’t enough and said that Cline should have learned more about his daughter’s identity before making her public insinuation.

“What if our daughter didn’t have that strong character and have our support, and community support to where she internalized this?” He asked. “Worst case scenario, she could’ve ended her own life.”

He has called on Cline to resign.

“Here’s a person that is supposed to be in a position of leadership that advocates for our children’s safety, well-being, their privacy, and she’s the one who has instigated this post that has led to all this hate,” he said.

The state LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality Utah slammed Cline, writing, “Natalie Cline has a history of posting inflammatory opinions; however, this is a new level of depravity and bullying. Cline’s post perpetuates a modern-day witch hunt, where hysterical adults police the bodies of children to determine if they are masculine or feminine enough.”

Utah state Rep. Kera Birkeland (R), who sponsored a bill to ban trans girls from playing on girl’s school sports teams, said that, if Cline had targeted her child in a similar social media post, she’d “be talking to an attorney right now.”

“It is not brave or responsible to attack someone based on their outward appearance, especially when it’s a child. It’s horrible,” Birkeland said. “There is a process in place to make sure that high school athletics in Utah are fair and where appropriate, separated by sex. Trust the process. And even if you don’t trust the process, be good enough humans to handle your concerns through the appropriate channels.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) and Lt. Gov. Dieter Henderson (R) have echoed the father’s sentiments, saying that Cline has “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,” Cox and Dieter said in a statement. “The last thing our children need is an elected official harassing them on social media. We urge the State Board of Education to hold her accountable.”

The state education board wrote that it is “very concerned about [Cline’s] post and the harm it has caused to students and families.” It added, “We are deeply saddened by the events that have taken place and will be taking prompt action regarding this matter as determined by the full Board,” though it said, “The Board has no power or authority to unseat an elected official.”

Cline has a history of making anti-LGBTQ+ social media posts. In September 2021, Cline was censured for promising to “make some phone calls” in a social media post after seeing a photo of a sign at a seminary welcoming LGBTQ people near Layton High School, which the state Board of Education determined had “incited hate speech.”

She has called LGBTQ+ students “gender-confused,” accused educators of learning how to “indoctrinate your children,” said a “natural family” can only consist of a mother and father, accused the Utah Pride Center of being “after your children’s hearts and minds,” The Salt Lake Tribune wrote. She also published a post encouraging people to shoot LGBTQ+ people and allies.

In July 2023, Cline wrote on social media, “Schools are not only complicit in the grooming of children for sex trafficking, but they are aiding and abetting this evil practice by giving kids easy access to explicit, unnatural, and twisted sexual content and brainwashing them into queer, gender-bending ideologies.”