Overview
- Matt Calkins resigned Thursday after 11 years at The Seattle Times and immediately published the column the paper declined to run on his Substack account.
- He said editors routed the draft through multiple hands before rejecting it and told him the reason was that he had not notified them in advance, a rationale Calkins disputes.
- The column framed the views of two female student‑athletes who oppose competing against biological males and was written after a courtside incident in which a teen says Storm co‑owner Celeste Keaton cursed at her.
- The WNBA fined and suspended Keaton for five home games over the incident, which helped lift the episode from a local confrontation to national coverage that conservative outlets promptly amplified.
- Calkins says the decision caps a pattern of his contentious pieces being spiked, and the episode arrives as Washington voters prepare to consider Initiative IL26‑638 on participation rules for school sports.