Petition calls Utah School Board member racist, anti-LGBTQ

Newly elected Utah State Board of Education member Natalie Cline is facing harsh criticism for her statements on race and sexuality. An online petition has over 8,000 signatures demanding her removal.

In February, Cline posted several inflammatory Facebook posts, including one criticizing Murray City School District educators for making a presentation during a recent Utah Pride Center Conference for educators.

“Learn more about what they are doing to indoctrinate your children here,” Cline wrote, posting a now-deleted video. The Utah Pride Center clapped back. “Our goal is not to indoctrinate anyone, but to shed some light on the situation queer youth are experiencing at school, then allow educators, administrators and even elected officials the opportunity to make decisions based on that information,” Center executive director Robert Moolman wrote in the statement.

The Utah Pride Center also provides “workshops on suicide prevention, selflove, identity and how to include LGBTQ representation in the classroom, which can be just one book sitting on the shelf with a gay character. A teacher having a small rainbow flag or sticker, for instance, could also alert students that they’re in a safe space without anyone saying anything out loud, he said. Overall, the point is to help students achieve and feel like they can attend class.”

Moolman made a public invitation to Cline to sit one-on-one with him and tour the Center. Cline has not accepted his offer.

Cline also posted a “warning” on Jordan School District’s culture and diversity instruction in classrooms, urging parents to opt out their children from lessons, programs, activities or discussions on “cultural proficiency/competence/relevance, diversity, equity, inclusivity, privilege, White fragility, intersectionality, anti-racism, critical/crucial conversations (i.e. Critical Race Theory), etc.”

Black Lives Matter leaders are not, however, offering to meet with Cline after she doubled-down on her beliefs in a KTVX interview..

“Black Lives Matter Utah will not meet with Natalie Cline…That is below us….We do not have time to meet with the embodiment of hatred and evil. We need to love ourselves. We need to spread Black empowerment, and self love,” BLM Utah wrote in a Facebook post.

Cline ran on eliminating Common Core, protecting parental rights, restoring local control of schools, and protecting children’s innocence.

“The teaching of specific religious doctrines, social justice issues, sex education, sexuality and gender ideology, contraception, and abortion are best left to parents to teach at home as they are far too complex and nuanced to deal with in the classroom setting and they unfairly put the child in the stressful position of having to choose between which authority figure in their life to believe.,” she stated for her candidate website.

“As a school board member I will fight to keep Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Critical Race Theory, and pornography out of Utah classrooms and school. The core philosophies of CSE are nothing short of disturbing.”

The petition is available at sign.moveon.org/petitions/ remove-natalie-j-cline