Sophie Cunningham’s stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports has refused to fade from the WNBA conversation, and now, with a senior journalist resigning, the issue is gaining wider attention. Nearly a month after the Indiana Fever guard made her position on this topic clear, the controversy has led to a longtime sports columnist resigning after his column supporting the guard’s position was rejected.

Former Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins attempted to write about the issue from the perspective of student-athletes who raised a voice against “biological males in girls/women sports,” per his interview with Fox News journalist Jackson Thompson. However, it ultimately became the breaking point in his 11-year run with the newspaper.

“It all came to a head when I tried to write about the Trans Issue. Interviewed a couple of girls, Ahnaleigh Wilson and Frances Staudt. Just basically girls who’ve had to compete against transgender females and weren’t comfortable with it and I tried to put that out there,” Calkins said in an interview with Brandi Kruse. “They didn’t want to run it and I just kind of had enough. I didn’t storm off or anything. I just said, ‘I don’t think this is the right fit anymore.’”

Calkins spoke with Wilson at a rally in support of Sophie Cunningham outside Climate Pledge Arena before the Fever faced the Seattle Storm on July 28.

Wilson, 16, has been vocal about the issue ever since she lost to a transgender athlete in a track race. She attended the Fever-Storm game with a “Thank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls!” sign. Calkins also interviewed Staudt, who said she had faced backlash after refusing to compete against a transgender athlete in a basketball game, per the New York Post.

According to his Substack post, the column Calkins eventually submitted argued that supporting separate women’s sports does not automatically make someone transphobic. He also wrote about the backlash faced by Wilson and Staudt while defending their right to voice their position.

But after several editors reviewed it over six days, he was informed that the column would not be published. And that’s why, rather than continue with the newspaper, Calkins decided to resign.

“After 11 years as a sports columnist at the Seattle Times, I have decided to resign. It was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one,” Calkins wrote on X. “The 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.”

The columnist also revealed the reason the Seattle Times gave him for not running the piece in an interview with Jackson Thompson.

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

He ultimately “just decided to resign on the spot.”

Sophie Cunningham’s comments may have been made nearly a month ago, but the fallout surrounding them continues to find new ways to grow. What began as a divisive stance from a WNBA player has now spilled into protests, public backlash and, most recently, the resignation of a longtime sports columnist. Yet this debate is far from seeing its final chapter.

The movement supporting Sophie Cunningham shows no signs of slowing down

Besides Matt Calkins’ account, the incident that did make headlines from that July 28 game also involved Wilson. During the game, Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton approached the teenagers and accused them of carrying the sign supporting Sophie Cunningham.

The incident generated massive backlash on social media, leading to majority owner Ginny Gilder putting out a statement.

“We are aware one of our co-owners made comments to two fans in attendance at last night’s game. We apologize that this happened. Everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome, and we remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where every fan is treated with respect.”

Following the statement, the WNBA took action against Keaton, barring her from attending five of the Storm’s home games and also fined her. Yet in the aftermath of the first rally of its kind at Seattle, the momentum only grew.

Subsequent rallies happened in Toronto, followed by Minnesota. While each rally and the counter-protests generated their own debates, another contentious account came from political activist Riley Gaines, who claimed she was told to put away her sign by arena security at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Gaines had attended the August 1 game to show support for Cunningham when the incident took place inside the arena.

“He comes over there, and he says, ‘ You need to take your sign down.’ And I kind of push back. I’m like, ‘Why?’ And at this point, everyone in my little section was pretty outraged… So they’re like, ‘Why does she have to put her sign down? Look, that person has a sign. This person has a sign. Why does she need to put hers down?’ And he says, ‘Well, I was told it has her name on it, so she can’t.'” Gaines claimed in her August 4 vlog on YouTube.

Yet even after these incidents the group Texas Values organized a similar rally ahead of the Fever-Dream game outside the American Airlines Center on Thursday. And now another rally has been planned for August 22 at the southeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue outside Barclays Center, when the Fever take on the New York Liberty on the road.

With the debate and rallies showing no signs of slowing down, Cunningham’s position remains at the center of a conversation that has clearly moved well beyond basketball.