Matt Calkins Quits Seattle Times After 11 Years Over Spiked Trans Sports Column
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
Matt Calkins Quits Seattle Times After 11 Years Over Spiked Trans Sports Column
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
Summary
Matt Calkins, 44, said he resigned this month after Seattle Times editors refused to publish a late-July column arguing that backing a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports is not inherently transphobic.
Emails reviewed by The New York Times show editors first delayed the piece, then elevated it to senior editors, before telling Calkins it would not run because he had not cleared it in advance.
Calkins said the dispute fit a broader pattern in which columns he saw as "to the right" of the newsroom—including pieces on the U.S. women’s soccer equal-pay lawsuit and cancel culture in sports—were rejected.
The Seattle Times declined to comment, while Calkins posted the unpublished column on Substack and said he went public because he did not want to "fade quietly into the night."