Seattle Times columnist resigns over spiked transgender sports column

Matt Calkins, a longtime sports columnist for the Seattle Times, resigned on Thursday, August 20, 2026, after 11 years with the newspaper, citing what he described as a pattern of editorial restrictions that culminated in the paper refusing to run his latest column. The rejected column focused on two Washington state student athletes who oppose allowing transgender girls to compete in female sports.

Calkins announced his resignation on the social media platform X and explained his reasoning in a post on Substack. He stated the immediate impetus was the newspaper’s decision not to publish a column he wrote from the perspective of the two student athletes. The column was developed following a July 28 WNBA game between the Seattle Storm and Indiana Fever, where Calkins attended a rally supporting Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has publicly opposed transgender women participating in women’s sports. At the event, Calkins interviewed 16-year-old runner Ahnaleigh Wilson, who stated she had previously competed against a transgender athlete. The column later also included perspective from Tumwater High School basketball player Frances Staudt, who had declined to play in a game...