The conversation stemming from Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s comments on transgender athletes added another plot point on Thursday, with a prominent sports columnist saying he resigned due to censorship over the topic.
Matt Calkins, who penned columns for The Seattle Times for more than a decade, announced on X this afternoon that he was stepping down.
“After 11 years as a sports columnist at The Seattle Times, I have decided to resign,” Calkins wrote. “It was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one. The impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males. It was one of several pieces of mine that had been spiked, and I no longer felt like I could properly do my job as a columnist.”
After 11 years as a sports columnist at the Seattle Times, I have decided to resign. It was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one. The impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to…
— Matt Calkins (@Matt_Calkins) August 20, 2026
Scrapped transgender column the final strawCalkins, who also said he “enjoyed my time with the paper” and “have no animosity toward anyone who works there,” went into greater detail on what led to his decision on his personal Substack.
While covering a WNBA game last month between the Seattle Storm and the Fever, Calkins encountered two teenage girls who were part of a pregame protest supporting Cunningham’s views on keeping transgender women out of women’s sports. After speaking with them, Calkins said he felt they weren’t anti-trans and decided to write a column arguing that “supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic.”
“I sent a draft after talking to my editor the morning of Friday, July 31, telling him there was no rush to run it,” Calkins said. “He told me later that day that he and others were looking at it, but that it wouldn’t be ready for Sunday’s paper. Monday night, I got an email saying that his boss was hoping to talk to the top two newsroom editors about it on Wednesday. No feedback had been given to me. Thursday afternoon, my editor informed me that it wasn’t going to run because I didn’t tell him I was doing this in advance. I didn’t buy this reasoning. If that were the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not passed through the hands of multiple editors over several days.”
In response, Calkins felt he was best served resigning from his post. The column in question, titled “Agreeing with Sophie Cunningham’s stance doesn’t make you transphobic,” can be read here.
Not the first time, Calkins saidCalkins also claimed multiple additional instances of his columns being spiked. Apparent topics included cancel culture in sports, avoiding negative stereotypes of police in the wake of George Floyd’s death, and questioning whether USWNT players were actually victims of wage discrimination.
“I’ve always thought that it was a columnist’s duty to generate discussion on the most hot-button issues. To avoid such topics was to leave the reader shortchanged. I guess in the end, I just didn’t feel like I could do my job properly anymore,” Calkins said.
For now, Calkins says he will continue writing at his Substack and see where that leads.
The post ‘I’m done holding back’: Columnist quits major newspaper over Sophie Cunningham piece appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
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