Matt Calkins resigned from the Seattle Times on Thursday after saying the paper would not publish his column on the Save Women's Sports movement. The sports writer said the rejection meant he could not do the job he had spent 11 years building there.
He said the column centered on two Washington student-athletes who oppose allowing transgender girls to compete in female sports. Calkins told News Digital that he wanted to present their voices and argue that support for sex-separated competition does not automatically equal hostility toward transgender people.
Six days at Seattle Times
Calkins said he submitted the piece a couple Fridays ago and then waited six days while editors reviewed it. By his account, the paper decided it was not going to run, ending a process that he described as routine until the final refusal.
He said the explanation he got was narrow: “You didn't tell us you were doing this in advance, uh, so we can't run it.” He also said, “But I didn't buy the excuse.” For a columnist, that kind of gatekeeping can matter as much as the opinion itself, because it determines whether the writer still has room to publish the view he was hired to bring.
Save Women and Sophie Cunningham
The dispute grew out of a broader fight around the Save Women's Sports movement and a rally supporting Sophie Cunningham ahead of the Seattle Storm and the Indiana Fever at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Wash. Calkins said he attended that rally and wanted to “get their voices out there,” especially the voices of girls who feel shut out of the debate.
He also said, “I feel like if you look at most media, the girls who have to compete against biological males, I feel like their voices get stifled a lot.” That is the hard edge of this break: a columnist with 11 years inside the newsroom saying the outlet would not let him publish the argument he was hired to make.
Seattle Times and the split
Calkins said he has “a lot of respect for my editors” and added, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I were in their situation either.” He also said, “Anytime I would kind of go against the grain, my columns would get spiked,” and added, “I couldn’t do my job as a columnist because I feel like they were stifling my voice.”
Digital said it reached out to the Seattle Times for a response and had not heard back. That leaves the paper’s side of the editorial line unexplained, while Calkins has already made his answer public by walking away from the desk.
