California councilmember blames daughter becoming a lesbian on sexual trauma
Ryan Adamczeski
Wed, December 17, 2025 at 7:26 PM UTC
3 min read
A city council member in Lincoln, California is facing student protests and calls to be censured after blaming her daughter's sexual orientation on her trauma.
Councilmember Holly Andreatta made the remarks while speaking to a group of students at Twelve Bridges High School during the first meeting for "Club America," a chapter of Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA that targets minors. Andreatta told the teens that "my oldest daughter had a lot of trauma as a child," which she believes caused her to become a lesbian.
"Something really terrible happened to her when she was young that I would hope would never happen to any other child," Andreatta said. "And as a result of it, she's a lesbian. She's gay. She's married to a woman."
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Andreatta's comments were immediately met with backlash as video of her speech began circulating on social media. Students and their families flooded the Western Placer Unified School District board meeting Tuesday night to voice their opposition to the club's presence in Twelve Bridges, with over 300 signing a petition demanding it be shut down. Others called on Andreatta's fellow council members to disavow her marks by voting to censure her.
Andreatta, for her part, at first attempted to claim that the recording was altered by artificial intelligence, despite multiple videos from different students capturing her comments. She wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post, "I am the same person I have always been, kind, principled, inclusive and committed to respectful dialogue. A manipulated video does not change the truth."
She later issued a public apology to her daughter after stating that she had apologized to her private as well, telling CBS, "I want to publicly apologize to my daughter. Her story is hers alone, and I should not have shared personal details about her trauma. To be absolutely clear: I did not say that trauma causes homosexuality. I never said that, nor would I ever say that or think that. I was referring to a very specific personal experience."
While research has found that LGBTQ+ people report higher rates of physical and sexual abuse during childhood, there is no proof that the abuse is what causes same-sex attraction. Instead, data suggests that LGBTQ+ people are potentially more likely to be targeted because of their identities, as a 2020 report from the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ+ people are nearly four times as likely to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault.
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A spokesperson for the district told CBS that any decision involving "Club America" would not be impacted by the petition and must be made in accordance with board policy as well as state and federal law. The next Lincoln City Council meeting is January 13 at 6 p.m. local time.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 with free and confidential services. More resources are available here. If you or someone you know has experienced trafficking, or if you suspect someone is a victim of trafficking, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is also available at 1-888-373-7888, toll-free and 24/7. For cases involving minors, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is available 24/7 at 1-800-843-5678.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: California councilmember blames daughter becoming a lesbian on sexual trauma