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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 18: Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever reacts against the New York Liberty during the first half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 18, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Bobby Goddin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Veteran sportswriter Matt Calkins has resigned from The Seattle Times after the newspaper allegedly declined to publish his column supporting Sophie Cunningham amid the ongoing WNBA-transgender controversy.<\/p>\n
Calkins announced his resignation on X on Thursday, revealing that he decided to leave after The Seattle Times decided against publishing some of his articles.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 11 years as a sports columnist at the Seattle Times, I have decided to resign,\u201d wrote Calkins.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males. It was one of several pieces of mine that had been spiked, and I no longer felt like I could properly do my job as a columnist.\u201d<\/p>\n In his parting note, Calkins said he held \u201cno animosity\u201d toward anyone at the Seattle Times and it was \u201cjust time for a change.\u201d However, scores of fans ripped the newspaper for censoring his right to free speech, specifically since he intended to write an article from the perspective of two female student athletes, not just his own opinions.<\/p>\n Sophie Cunningham Supporter Censored<\/p>\n According to Awful Announcing<\/a>, Calkins interviewed the two female student athletes after the \u201cSupport Sophie Cunningham\u201d after Indiana Fever\u2019s game against the Seattle Storm last month. The rally occurred soon after Cunningham urged the WNBA to \u201cprotect young girls\u201d and to keep \u201cbiological men\u201d out of the league.<\/p>\n Calkins apparently submitted a draft titled \u201cAgreeing with Sophie Cunningham\u2019s stance doesn\u2019t make you transphobic\u201d to his editor on July 31. The column was not published.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the rally, Calkins wrote a column from the perspective of two female student athletes, one being 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson who was allegedly cursed out by Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton for sitting courtside and holding a sign expressing support for Cunningham,\u201d wrote Brandon Contes.<\/p>\n \u201cCalkins submitted a draft of the column titled \u201cAgreeing with Sophie Cunningham\u2019s stance doesn\u2019t make you transphobic\u201d to his editor Friday, July 31. After receiving several notes about the draft still being under review by multiple editors, he ultimately learned it was not going to run the following Thursday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n WNBA Controversy Takes Ugly Turn<\/p>\n Calkins provided additional details on his Substack about the dumped column.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always thought that it was a columnist\u2019s duty to generate discussion on the most hot-button issues,\u201d Calkins wrote on his Substack, via Awful Announcing.<\/p>\n \u201cTo avoid such topics was to leave the reader shortchanged. I guess in the end, I just didn\u2019t feel like I could do my job properly anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Cunningham\u2019s comments, ex-NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White<\/a> declared for next year\u2019s WNBA Draft, while choosing to identify as women.<\/p>\n In response to the controversy, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert established a task force\u2014comprising team presidents and front-office executives\u2014to navigate transgender athlete inclusion in the league.<\/p>\n \u201cI know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women\u2019s basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,\u201d Engelbert wrote in a memo,\u00a0via ESPN.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sportswriter with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 18: Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever reacts against the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-865763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}