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But after several editors reviewed it over six days, he was informed that the column would not be published.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. With the debate showing no signs of slowing down, Cunningham’s position remains at the center of a conversation that has clearly moved well beyond basketball.