Longtime Seattle Times sports columnist Matt Calkins resigned this week after the paper declined to run a column he wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who oppose competing against transgender athletes in women’s sports. Calkins says it was one of several of his pieces that had been spiked, and that he no longer felt he could do his job as a columnist under those conditions.
What Was Actually in the Column That Got Spiked?
Calkins had reported the piece around a pro women’s sports rally, interviewing a 16 year old runner who says she lost a race to a transgender competitor and another student athlete who described enduring daily verbal abuse after refusing to play against a transgender opponent. He wrote on Substack that editors held the column for six days before rejecting it, telling him he hadn’t given enough advance notice, and that his actual thesis, that supporting separate categories for biological sex in sports doesn’t make someone transphobic, never made it into print.
The Times told The Hill it does not comment on personnel matters. Calkins, who spent 11 years at the paper, said he holds no animosity toward his former colleagues and called the talent there immense, framing his exit as a matter of no longer being able to do the specific job he was hired for rather than a broader grievance against the newsroom.
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