Matt Calkins, a sports columnist for the Seattle Times, has resigned from the newspaper after 11 years, stating that the outlet declined to publish his column on the topic of transgender athletes in women's sports. Calkins detailed his decision in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The column in question was reportedly based on the perspective of female athletes who expressed opposition to competing against biological males. Calkins wrote that he spoke with fans outside a Seattle Storm game, including a teenager who was allegedly mistreated by a team owner. He stated in his writing that "supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic."
A representative for the Seattle Times declined to comment on the matter to The Post.
Calkins described the review process for the column as lengthy and intensive. He explained that after submitting a draft, his editor informed him that it would not be ready for the Sunday paper. Later, he learned that the editor's boss planned to discuss the piece with top newsroom editors. Calkins stated that he received no specific feedback on the column until his editor informed him on a Thursday afternoon that it would not be published, citing Calkins' failure to give advance notice of the column's topic. Calkins found this reasoning unconvincing, believing that if it were a policy violation, the piece would have been stopped immediately.
In response, Calkins decided to resign from his position.
Calkins also claimed that other columns he wrote were previously rejected. These included a piece questioning the claims of discrimination in the U.S. Women's Soccer Team's equal-pay lawsuit, a general column on cancel culture in sports, and a column advocating for listening to a Black coach's perspective on avoiding stereotypes of police officers following George Floyd's death. Calkins suggested a common theme among these rejected pieces was their challenge to prevailing newsroom narratives, which he believed could provoke public backlash.
Despite the uncertainty following his resignation, Calkins expressed his resolve, stating that while he is fearful of the future, that fear is preferable to the indignity of being silenced.