I quit the Seattle Times over my spiked trans – Latest News
I actually wished the column to run. I didn’t assume it might, however I felt obligated to attempt to get it in.
Toward the finish of final month, earlier than the Seattle Storm hosted the Indiana Fever, I spoke to people attending a rally in help of Sophie Cunningham exterior Climate Pledge Arena.
The Fever guard had not too long ago taken a stance in opposition to organic males competing in girls’s/women sports activities, and a few dozen of us confirmed up to precise their gratitude for her place.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham walks throughout the court docket during the first half of a WNBA basketball sport in opposition to the Minnesota Lynx on August 2, 2026. AP Photo/Abbie Parr
One of them was 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, who’d misplaced to a organic male in a monitor and discipline race in eighth grade and was holding a signal studying “Thank You Sophie for Speaking up for Girls!”
I didn’t know if I was going to write down one thing at that time, however after she allegedly received stubborn out by a Storm co-owner during the sport, I felt like I needed to weigh in.
One factor Wilson emphasised to me at the rally was that she wasn’t anti-trans. Another student-athlete named Frances Staudt — who mentioned she’s endured every day verbal abuse after refusing to play in opposition to a organic boy in a basketball sport — echoed Wilson’s sentiment.
Matt Calkins, former Sports Columnist for The Seattle Times. Matt Calkins / LinkedIn
So that was the thesis of my column (which you’ll be able to learn right here or under) — that supporting the separation of organic females and males doesn’t robotically make you transphobic, so let’s stop throwing these labels round.
I despatched a draft after speaking to my editor the morning of Friday, July 31, telling him there was no rush to run it. He instructed me later that day that he and others had been taking a look at it, however that it wouldn’t be prepared for Sunday’s paper.
Monday evening, I received an electronic mail saying that his boss hoped to speak to the prime two newsroom editors about it on Wednesday. No suggestions had been given to me. Thursday afternoon, my editor knowledgeable me that it wasn’t going to run as a result of I didn’t inform him I was doing this prematurely. I didn’t buy this reasoning. If that had been the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not handed by way of the arms of a number of editors over a number of days.
A fan holds a signal for Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham in reference to her feedback on transgender athletes as a fan carrying Seattle Storm gear holds a competing signal during the first half of a WNBA basketball sport on July 28, 2026, in Seattle. AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson
My response? To resign on the spot.
That might come off as an emotional determination, nevertheless it was precisely what I was ready to do. This, after all, was one of a number of columns of mine that had been spiked at the Seattle Times.
One was a piece questioning whether or not gamers for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team had been actually the victims of discrimination of their equal-pay lawsuit. Another was a more normal column on cancel tradition in sports activities. The final, written shortly after George Floyd’s death, implored people to take heed to state-champion basketball coach Mike Bethea — a black man urging the public to not stereotype cops. The common theme? All of these challenged prevailing newsroom narratives and sure would have triggered the outrage mob.
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I’ve all the time thought that it was a columnist’s obligation to generate dialogue on the most hot-button points. To keep away from such topics was to go away the reader shortchanged. I guess in the finish, I simply didn’t really feel like I might do my job correctly anymore.
Right now, I’m in the tenuous place of making an attempt to defend my resignation with out sounding like a malcontent. So let me say — I’m very grateful for the 11 years I had at the Seattle Times. The expertise there may be immense, and the editors let me have a lot of enjoyable with different tales. I additionally understand the place the brass is coming from. The mob is scary and doesn’t overlook. Lots of seemingly courageous souls have submitted as soon as activists received their hooks in them. If I had more people relying on me, maybe I’d act equally.
But in considering about this determination, I stored going back to an Albus Dumbledore line: “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”
To be sincere, I’m scared sh–much less proper now. I have no thought how the subsequent few months or years are going to play out. But that worry beats the indignity of being muzzled.
The plan for now could be to keep writing on this space. Maybe that may spawn a new profession, or perhaps I’ll be a dental assistant in two years. I genuinely don’t know.
All that’s sure is that I’m completed holding back. The best issues in life are free — speech being at the prime of the listing.
Matt Calkins is a former sports activities columnist for The Seattle Times. He now writes on Substack at mattycee.substack.com.
You can learn his full column under:
Some people noticed bigotry. I noticed bravery.
I noticed a teenage lady talking up on an concern that so many adults draw back from.
About 90 minutes earlier than the Storm performed the Fever final Tuesday, 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson stood at a rally exterior Climate Pledge Arena carrying an XX-XY Athletics shirt whereas holding a signal studying “Thank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls!” It was a nod to Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has not too long ago come out in opposition to trans females competing in opposition to organic ones.
There had been no slurs hurled. No malice detected. It was simply Wilson, an Eastmont High pupil in East Wenatchee, demonstrating what some have hassle accepting: that agreeing with Cunningham’s place doesn’t make you transphobic.
“I don’t hate trans people and I have nothing against them,” Wilson mentioned. “I just think that girls should have their own sports.”
Two issues will be true without delay. You can show compassion for people who really feel trapped in the unsuitable physique whereas acknowledging they’ve a organic benefit. After all, why will we separate men and women in sports activities in the first place?
It’s not due to the potential awkwardness of bodily contact. It’s as a result of males have greater testosterone ranges and completely different skeletal and muscular frames, which collectively produce important efficiency benefits. This isn’t one thing I deliver up at dinner events, nevertheless it’s simple. By each measurable metric in sports activities — whether or not or not it’s 100-meter instances, vertical leaps, weightlifting, yards off the tee, and so forth. — the prime males considerably outperform the prime females.
In short: The separation is strictly for the sake of women and girls. So absolutely one can see why, to many, permitting organic males to compete in opposition to females undermines this division.
Wilson began talking out after she completed second to a trans athlete in the mile at a Junior Olympics monitor meet two years in the past. Before Tuesday’s Storm sport, she mentioned that almost all of the in-person suggestions she’d obtained had been constructive — that the actual vitriol was online.
Well, all that modified a couple hours later in the area, the place Wilson sat courtside along with her “Thank You Sophie” register hand.
During the sport, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton walked over to Wilson, allegedly referred to as her “f***ing insane,” added “I hope Jesus can forgive you,” and supposedly introduced her to tears. This occurred after a fan pointed to a different Sophie supporter and yelled “garbage! Take the trash out!”
It’s been a class 5 hurricane since, with Keaton receiving a five-game suspension, J.Okay. Rowling and Cunningham displaying Wilson help on X, and pundits from each nook of the web dissecting the scene.
I suppose I might make this about the WNBA and its regular behavior of garnering the unsuitable type of consideration. But I’d slightly keep on with the concern of who ought to be allowed to take part in girls’s sports activities. This is what Wilson involves rallies for — not worldwide drama.
One common counterargument in opposition to her and Cunningham’s stance is that organic males in girls’s sports activities is uncommon, so why make a fuss?
OK, but when one thing is unsuitable, why ought to it matter how uncommon it’s? Are opponents saying that if the quantity of trans athletes reaches a sure quantity, then we must always deal with it? To me, that is nearly a tacit admission that there’s, certainly, one thing unfair occurring.
Plus, how uncommon is uncommon? Trans swimmer Lia Thomas gained the national title in the girls’s 500 meters whereas at Penn. Trans bike owner Veronica Ivy set a world file in the 200 meter dash for her age group. Trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard gained silver at the 2017 World Championships and in 2020, grew to become the first brazenly trans particular person to compete in the Olympics.
Here in Washington, trans monitor athlete Veronica Garcia, representing East Valley High in Spokane Valley, gained the 2025 state title in the 400 meters. In Oregon, McDaniel High’s Ada Gallagher gained the 2025 state title in the 200 meters. In California, Jurupa Valley High’s AB Hernandez gained the 2025 state title in the high bounce and triple bounce. This doesn’t imply trans athletes have overtaken girls’s sports activities fully, however the listing goes past the examples above.
Another counter is that trans people are more weak than most, and barring them from sports activities might be emotionally devastating. I’m not unsympathetic to this. Two factors, although. First — who’s to say that a organic lady wouldn’t additionally really feel distressed if displaced by a trans athlete or compelled to share a locker room with a organic male? Second and more importantly, that is about equity, not emotions. The unlucky fact with this concern is that somebody goes to be upset — both the organic feminine who feels she’s unreasonably deprived, or the trans athlete who can’t take part. This debate is solely about who it ought to be.
Come November, Washingtonians can vote on an initiative that, if handed, would preclude organic males from competing in opposition to females at school sports activities. And although one would possibly assume this can increase open dialogue on the matter, everyone knows that is one of the more scary topics to handle.
Even if polling suggests that almost all of the nation sides with Cunningham and Wilson, no one needs to be referred to as a bigot or a transphobe.
Such assaults are what Tumwater High pupil Frances Staudt says she endures every single day in school. Two Marches in the past, Staudt refused to play basketball in opposition to a organic male from Shelton for worry of being injured. She added that the organic male’s presence in her locker room made her really feel uncomfortable.That hasn’t spawned a lot sympathy from sure friends.
“I have people at my school cussing me out. I have people using some pretty awful words toward me as well. I’ve had people say ‘F-You, Frances,’ and ‘I hope you choke and die,’ Staudt said. “But I know ultimately I’m doing the right thing…this whole thing isn’t about hate.”
So it’s not an anti-trans motion? I requested Staudt.
“There’s only so many times that I can say that what we are standing up for is not ant-trans,” she mentioned. “This is pro-women’s sports.”
This doesn’t imply that there aren’t bigoted or transphobic supporters of this place. But what if we withheld these labels till completely sure? Most people, I assume, wish to do what’s proper. They simply have completely different opinions on what proper is.
We noticed that at Tuesday’s rally, which included protesters who got here to denounce the pro-Cunningham occasion. In one of their arms was a signal that learn “No Hate in WA State.”
It was purported to be a shot at the Sophie supporters, however I don’t assume it landed. Something tells me that Ahnaleigh Wilson noticed that and thought “I couldn’t agree more.”
