MATT CALKINS: Media keeps calling women's sports advocates 'anti-trans' without a shred of proof
I saw it right there in the lede of a Washington Post column Tuesday.
"A transgender girl stretched for a high school race as supporters of a new anti-trans ballot measure chanted 'enough is enough'."
I saw it six days earlier in a Guardian headline about how doctors are fighting an "anti-trans measure" that would separate biological girls from boys in women's sports.
The Portland Mercury got in on it, too, writing in its Monday headline how "anti-trans activists" attempted to overshadow the Thorns' playoff-clinching win.
These aren't columnists offering subjective opinions. These are media outlets writing opinions as fact.
The message? You can't possibly be a women's sports advocate without being transphobic. And that thought is just ... tired.
(From left to right) Female athletes Frances Staudt, Bailey Andersen, Sadie Sullivan, Kendall Kotzmacher and Alanna Smith stand behind emcee and podcast host Brandi Kruse at a Protecting Fairness in Girls' Sports rally in Vancouver, Washington. (Derek Shook for OutKick)
I have no doubt there are people who have genuine scorn for members of the trans community. Every group — men, women, Whites, Blacks, gays, Muslims, Jews. etc. — has its haters.
But the voices backing these ballot measures? The figures advocating for girls' and women's spaces? They aren't demonizing trans people. Not in the slightest.
Perhaps the most famous face to speak up on this issue in the past few months is Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who said in an ESPN interview: "I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."
But she prefaced that very sentence by saying "I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that.' I think that I am here to extend love."
Defenders of female sports categories gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as they wait for rulings on June 30, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court upheld state restrictions on transgender athletes in female sports. (Getty Images)
A few days after that interview came out, a high school girl in Seattle named Ahnaleigh Wilson — holding a sign saying "Thank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls" — echoed Cunningham's sentiment, saying "I don’t hate trans people and I have nothing against them. I just think that girls should have their own sports."
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham reacts to a call from the referee on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, during Game 2 of the first round of the WNBA playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Fellow Washingtonian Frances Staudt — who says she's been harassed constantly for refusing to play a high school basketball game against a boy — added "There’s only so many times that I can say that what we are standing up for is not anti-trans. This is pro-women’s sports."
Yet the headlines have kept coming.
From Colorado Newsline: "Signatures submitted for anti-trans Colorado ballot measures."
From Politico: "Democrats revamp their midterm playbook for GOP's anti-trans attacks."
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From Ms. Magazine: "This Midterm Season, Five States Are Voting on Anti-Trans Ballot."
If you read these stories, you'll notice that none give examples of someone issuing a slur or insult. They just presume that a bill or person opposing certain demands from members of the trans community is "anti-trans."
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It's pretty glaring when and how the media chooses to use the word "anti."
Save Women’s Sports activists are surrounded by an agitated group of trans supporters after unfurling a large "Save Women’s Sports" banner and revealing XX-XY shirts at a Portland Thorns match Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (OutKick)
When Colin Kaepernick wore pig socks and compared cops to modern-day slave patrol, did "anti-police" headlines from legacy media come flooding in? What about when BLM protesters chanted "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!"
That was pure vitriol toward their opponents. You simply don't see that type of rhetoric from the separate-men-and-women-in-sports crowd.
And by the way, that crowd includes Caitlyn Jenner — perhaps the most famous transgender person in the world. It includes Ari Laureano, a detransitioned male who was kicked out of a Portland Thorns game last week for his XX-XY shirt.
The biggest misnomer in this debate is that supporters of biological female-only spaces in sports and locker rooms all have animus toward trans people. But the media keeps repeating the lie that they do.
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Makes sense, I suppose. When you don't have the truth, repetition is your best weapon.
Matt Calkins is a columnist for Outkick, where he focuses on the overlap between sports and culture. Before joining the Fox team, he spent 11 years as a sports columnist for the Seattle Times, where he extracted a two-word quote from Marshawn Lynch and got a Seahawks draft pick to design his apartment. Matt also served as a sports columnist at the San Diego Union Tribune after working as the Blazers beat writer for the Vancouver Columbian. You can follow him on X at matt_calkins.
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