Seattle Times columnist resigns after paper allegedly refused to run 'Save Women's Sports' column

The Seattle Times lost sports columnist Matt Calkins in a highly publicized resignation on Thursday, after Calkins claimed the paper refused to run a piece on women's sports activists.

Calkins, who spent 11 years at the outlet, said the decision not to publish his column left him unable to perform the job he was hired to do.

The column centered on two Washington student-athletes who oppose allowing transgender girls to compete in female sports, that were recently at the center of a national controversy after they attended a Seattle Storm WNBA game to support Sophie Cunningham's support for protecting women's sports. Calkins sought to make the case that supporting sex-separated athletic competition does not necessarily reflect hostility toward transgender people.

"I tried to write a column through the eyes of two student athletes who were kind of speaking out against biological males in, in girls/women's sports and I submitted this column a couple Fridays ago to my editors ... basically six days went by and they said, 'Uh, we're looking at it. Um, let me give it to this editor. This editor is gonna have a talk with the top two editors.' And six days later they decided it wasn't gonna run," Calkins told Fox News Digital.

"All they said was that, 'You didn't tell us you were doing this in advance, uh, so we can't run it.' But I didn't buy the excuse."

Calkins added that he wanted to platform the voices of girls who speak out against trans athletes in women's sports.

"I wanted to get their voices out there," Calkins 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."

Calkins said the rejection followed a pattern involving several previous columns.

"Anytime I would kind of go against the grain, my columns would get spiked," he said.

Calkins emphasized that he respects his former editors and understands the pressure they face when deciding whether to publish commentary on divisive subjects. He said he does not harbor personal animosity toward his former colleagues.

"I have a lot of respect for my editors," he said. "I dont know what I wouldve done if I were in their situation either."

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At the same time, Calkins said he believed concern about public backlash had increasingly limited the range of opinions he was able to explore.

"I couldnt do my job as a columnist because I feel like they were stifling my voice," he said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Seattle Times for a response, but has not heard back.

The controversy Calkins focused on in his column began before a July 28 game between the Seattle Storm and Indiana Fever at Climate Pledge Arena. Calkins attended a rally supporting Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has spoken against transgender women participating in womens sports.

At the rally, Calkins interviewed 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, a high school runner who said she had previously competed against a transgender athlete. He also later interviewed Tumwater High School basketball player Frances Staudt, who had declined to play in a game involving a transgender opponent.