On the one hand, columnists are paid to stir the pot. On the other hand, Matt Calkins worked for a paper in godforsaken Seattle — home of the dependent socialist mayor and the erstwhile CHOP zone. So what did he expect?
Like they say in real estate: location, location, location.
Calkins, as The New York Times reports, "resigned this month after editors refused to publish a column he wrote about transgender [sic] athletes competing in women's sports."
As Calkins himself put it, "When I take controversial stands that kind of go against the grain, spiked. Anything else is fine."
By "controversial," Calkins means "commonsensical." But in defense of the Seattle Times, all the sports columnists at the paper are equal. It's just that the gutless ones who continue to schlep along for a paycheck by refusing to speak out against the abomination of men competing against women in sports are more equal than others.
Calkins isn't just any schlub like yours truly. As columnist Jennifer Graham writes in the Deseret News, he's a three-time national sports columnist of the year, and his work has been featured in the "Best American Sports Writing" anthology.
Nor is this the first time that Calkins has had one of his pieces spiked while writing for the Seattle Times.
This, though, was the straw that broke his back. And here I thought columnists were supposed to provide perspective and promote discussion, to make us think about the issues of the day. But in the increasingly left-leaning world of sports journalism, it seems that certain perspectives and certain discussions aren't worth having.
As far as the work environment there at the Seattle Times, Calkins told one of Seattle's lonely conservative voices, that of Jason Rantz, just what he's been dealing with: "It's a very far-left culture. I mean, there are pronoun buttons when you walk in the door that you're strongly encouraged to wear, and we had book clubs where basically it was all about race, like 'White Fragility' or Ibram Kendi, and it's basically kind of the whole white man bad kind of thing, and they kept beating that drum with every book that we read."
What we're seeing here is nothing new. It's the censorship of conservative ideas. But what we're seeing in women's sports, sadly, is an exercise in self-mutilation. The WNBA, as our Emmy Griffin wrote last month, is continuing to wage war on itself and its brand — not only by refusing to take a stand in defense of women's sports, but also by actively attacking those with the guts to do so, even if they happen to be high-school-aged girls.
Take, for example, what happened at the game that Calkins attended. As he wrote in the spiked column, which he's since reposted on his Substack page:
About 90 minutes before the [Seattle] Storm played the [Indiana] Fever last Tuesday, 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson stood at a rally outside Climate Pledge Arena wearing an XX-XY Athletics shirt while holding a sign reading "Thank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls!" It was a nod to Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has recently come out against trans females competing against biological ones.
In other words, a 16-year-old girl respectfully championed a position that's held by around 80% of the American people. But this was all too much for Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who, as Calkins continues, "walked over to Wilson, allegedly called her 'f***ing insane,' added 'I hope Jesus can forgive you,' and supposedly brought her to tears. This happened after a fan pointed to another Sophie supporter and yelled 'garbage! Take the trash out!'"
They're a tolerant bunch, these leftists. And if you don't believe them, they have a vulgarity for you.
"I don't hate trans people, and I have nothing against them," said young Ahnaleigh. "I just think that girls should have their own sports."
Make no mistake: The tranny sports issue has become a thorn in the side of the Democrat Party and its Democratic Socialist base. They wish it'd somehow just go away because they know their position is both unpopular and untenable. Men don't belong in women's sports.
Having said that, I'll admit to being a bit torn. Indulge my pronoun upheaval to make a point: Enes Kanter Freedom is a beautiful and courageous woman — albeit a big, brawny, bearded one with xy chromosomes — and she's taking the slings and arrows so that future generations of emotionally disturbed men pretending to be women won't have to endure what she's enduring.
As for Calkins, the aforementioned Graham notes, "There is a cost to speaking your mind, but there is also a reward if you play your cards right. If Calkins can convert just 10% of his followers on X to paid subscribers on Substack, he should have no problems paying his bills."
Graham is right about the potential of the Substack gig, but she's wrong about there being a cost to speaking your mind. There's only a cost when you speak your mind on behalf of conservative America — or, in this case, commonsense America.
