Full disclosure: I used to work for The Seattle Times.
asserted
I → use → Times
And it got pretty weird there at the end.
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it → get → end
Pronoun buttons that you were "totally encouraged" to wear sat in a basket by the front door.
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you → encourage → door
One space near the entrance was labeled the "Lounge and DEI Reading Room."
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space → label → entrance
The newsroom's book club, meanwhile, featured multiple works declaring that all white people were racist.
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people → feature → works
So one might expect some suspect copy to appear in the publication — and last weekend didn't disappoint.
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weekend → expect → publication
Sunday morning, the Times ran a story examining why Washington voters decisively backed Initiative 638, a measure barring biological males from girls' K-12 sports, even as Democrats made gains elsewhere on the ballot.
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Democrats → run → ballot
The article explored whether the result reflected concerns about fairness in women's sports or prejudice against transgender people.
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result → explore → people
To the reporters' credit, they quoted people on both sides of the issue.
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they → quote → issue
But there was one paragraph that looked as though it was inserted post-proofread as a prank.
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it → be → prank
"There is no serious scientific evidence that trans girls or women are better athletes than cisgender girls or women.
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girls → be → girls
A few transgender girls have won at the high school level, but across the U.S., just a few trans women have competed at elite college or professional levels, and none have dominated their sport.
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none → win → sport
Just how dense does the Times think its readers are?
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readers → think → ?
First, one has to ask — what is a "trans girl" or "trans woman?"
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girl → have → ?
Could this be as simple as a boy identifying as the opposite sex?
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boy → identify → sex
This explains why a cross country runner in Camas, Washington, went from 76th in a boys JV race to first in a girls varsity race after switching teams midseason this year.
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runner → explain → teams
It also explains why there aren't complaints about biological girls switching sides and dominating the boys.
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girls → explain → boys
But even with hormone therapy, an array of studies have found that significant physical differences can persist between transgender women and biological females.
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differences → find → women
In a Substack post on this topic in January, investigative journalist Benjamin Ryan linked to a 2025 scientific paper showing that, while testosterone suppression reduces athletic performance in transgender women who have undergone male puberty, substantial advantages in muscle strength, power, size and aerobic capacity can remain.
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advantages → link → strength
Ryan also pointed to a 2020 review published in Sports Medicine that found transgender women typically lose just 5% of their muscle mass after a year of testosterone suppression, meaning much of the strength and muscle advantage gained during male puberty can remain after hormone therapy.
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much → point → therapy
Seattle Red radio host Jason Rantz also dug into the science in taking down the Times' claim.
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Rantz → dig → claim
He cited a 2020 study of U.S. Air Force personnel showing that transgender women were still 12% faster than their female counterparts in a 1.5-mile run after two years of hormone therapy.
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women → cite → therapy
To his credit, Rantz also pointed to studies showing that hormone treatment can significantly reduce athletic performance.
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treatment → point → performance
So no, the research doesn't all point in the same direction.
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research → point → direction
Where did they look?
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they → look → ?
Equally ludicrous was the Times' line that no trans women have dominated their sport at "elite college or professional levels."
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women → dominate → levels
Penn swimmer Lia Thomas was ranked 65th in the country in the 500-yard freestyle in 2019.
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Thomas → rank → 2019
Then, despite undergoing feminizing hormone therapy for nearly three years, she won the NCAA Division I championship in the same event in 2022.
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she → undergo → 2022
If winning a national title isn't dominant, what is?
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what → win → title
Sorry, but this comes off as an advocacy piece dressed as a news story.
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this → come → story
They quoted a "family physician" criticizing I-638 without disclosing her background in transgender medicine.
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They → quote → medicine
They also sent a reporter to three different cross country meets involving the boy who switched to the girls team but never quoted a female runner from those events.
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who → send → events
I don't blame the reporter — who I saw talking to girls — for the latter.
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I → blame → latter
I suspect that an editor decided to omit those voices.
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editor → suspect → voices
Fortunately, the Times has a comment section at the bottom of each story where subscribers can push back.
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subscribers → have → story
The comments were turned off.
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comments → turn → ?
And my guess is that after the paper insulted their intelligence, the readers were as well.
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readers → insult → intelligence
The Aporia
