A Utah state school board member is under widespread backlash after sharing a post on social media that appeared to question the gender of a high school basketball player, prompting threats against the girl from online commenters.
Natalie Cline, a conservative member of the Utah State Board of Education, posted on Facebook earlier this week photos of a high school girls’ basketball team in Salt Lake County and falsely implied that one of the athletes is transgender, writing: “Girls’ basketball…” The now-deleted post had incited a slew of comments criticizing and threatening the girl.
Cline apologized in a statement on Facebook Wednesday, saying her post “created a firestorm around one of the players pictured” and led to “derogatory comments about the player.” She added that the post was removed after she learned the girl was not transgender.
But Cline, who has previously come under investigation for inflammatory comments about LGBTQ students, also defended her intent and asserted that she “never claimed” the student was a boy.