BACKLASH

Sen. Mike Lee’s Tweet Turbocharges Bullying of Professor

She shared a poignant story about her trans child in class—and was targeted with online abuse.

A Brigham Young University professor shares something every semester she teaches a required class on “eternal marriage”: her transgender child’s struggle with mental health and her belief the Mormon church should care for queer members. “It’s a beautiful class,” Sarah Coyne told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Lots of students are hugging and crying. It feels like we are there for each other.” But what happened next was definitely not pretty. A conservative publication on campus wrote a critical story about Coyne and then Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tweeted it out with the comment: “Commonplace at most universities, but BYU?” That unleashed a tsunami of online abuse directed at Coyne, who asked, “How are we modeling love and compassion when our top officials in Utah do something like this — taking a family that has gone through so much and call open season on them?”