What did Natalie Cline post? Utah State official faces resignation calls over allegedly falsely accusing teen of being transgender 

Utah State School Board of Education member Natalie Cline is facing calls for resignation after she allegedly falsely claimed that a teenager was transgender on Facebook. The unidentified child’s parents spoke to news outlets to reveal that the youngster had become a victim of cyberbullying after Cline shared her presumptions online. It was also reported that the girl required police protection due to the bouts of harassment she was receiving.

Trigger Warning: The following article contains transphobic content. Reader's discretion is adviced.

Earlier this week, Natalie Cline allegedly took to Facebook to share an image of a flier for a Salt Lake County high school girls’ basketball team. The state official wrote, “Girls’ basketball...” in the caption, reportedly suggesting that the 16-year-old seen in the flyer was actually a boy.

As per the Huffington Post, the teenager received vitriol and hate online. The Salt Lake Tribute also reported that the high school student received police protection due to the harassment.

The teenager’s parents clarified that their daughter was not transgender. They also characterized her as simply a “tomboy.”

“She 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 mother said.

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Natalie Cline issues a public apology after suggesting that the girl was transgender

According to the Huffington Post, Natalie Cline is receiving backlash from the teens’ parents and state lawmakers who are calling for her to resign.

In the midst of the scrutiny, the Republican took to Facebook to apologize for her earlier social media 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. But that is definitely not the case with this student, and I apologize again that the conversation around the post turned personal," she wrote.

Natalie Cline claimed that her confusion about the teenager’s gender came from the “trans movement being foisted upon us, which puts us all in a difficult spot.”

“In a world that sometimes uses children as human shields to push radical agendas, it has become increasingly difficult to trust and to know how to protect children without hurting children when children are the targets and victims in so much of the chaos and confusion swirling around us."

Following the occurrence, Utah Governor and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, both Republicans, took to social media to denounce Cline. They said in their statement that “the last thing our children need is an elected official harassing them on social media.”

They went on to ask the State Board of Education to hold Natalie Cline responsible for her actions.

They also claimed that this is not the first time the state official had “embarrassed the state of Utah.” The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Cline had shared her allegedly homophobic and racist views in the past as well.

Cline had reportedly called the LGBTQ community “gender confused.” In another instance, she referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as "indoctrination,” as she believed that schools were telling Caucasian students that they were always “wrong.”

The news outlet also noted that Natalie Cline had lobbied for Family Watch International, an organization that has been identified as a hate group. The community believes that homosexuality is a “mental disorder” and that they can “eliminate” the same through conversion therapy.