SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — When the phone rang at around 10 a.m. earlier this week, Al and Rachel van der Beek were surprised to be getting a call from their daughter’s high school principal.
The news was difficult to hear: Utah State School Board Member Natalie Cline had made a social media post that appeared to call out their daughter as a transgender member of her girls’ high school basketball team. The comment section of the post was becoming highly hostile. The principal of the school told the van der Beeks he wanted them to hear it from school officials before stumbling upon it on the internet themselves.
Minutes later, the phone rang again, and this time, it was their daughter’s coach, offering the same level of support. And basically, since that morning, the van der Beeks said that it hasn’t been hate that’s been directed their way.
Instead, it’s been an incredible outpouring of support and love.