(The Center Square) – The editor of the Bainbridge Island Review is refusing to run an opinion piece in support of I-638, conceding that running the op-ed could cost him subscribers.
The refusal comes despite the paper running an op-ed last month in opposition to the initiative that aims to protect girls sports by not allowing biological males to compete against females, regardless of how they identify.
Brian Anderson, the Washington state coordinator for Democrats For An Informed Approach to Gender, emailed The Center Square Wednesday after being told by the editor at the Bainbridge Island Review, Tyler Shuey, that the would not publish his op-ed in support of I-638, despite initially telling him they would.
“Our local paper, the Bainbridge Review, told me I could submit an op-ed in favor of I-638 in response to an op-ed opposing I-638 that he published a few weeks ago,” wrote Anderson.
The anti-I-638 article that the paper ran was titled “Understanding the risks, concerns of I-638.”
“Backers of the initiative want us to think that a genital exam, for no medical reason whatsoever, is no big deal. But parents know better. My kids barely let the doctor look in their ears at annual checkups. They should not endure a genital exam unless they have a medical concern, or until they are old enough to make decisions about their reproductive health,” the piece states.
As previously reported by The Center Square, no genital exam is required under I-638, which would require a doctor to check a box on a sports physical form as to the gender of the student based on their knowledge and experience with the patient.
Anderson told The Center Square that the editor eventually refused to publish his opinion piece.
“Yet another example of the biased coverage in local news,” Anderson said.
The Center Square could not verify that Shuey initially agreed to run Anderson’s piece.
Anderson’s column refutes claims made in the anti I-638 article concerning doctor exams.
“A person’s sex is documented in their medical record based on past exams, and a health care provider can rely on this documentation. The initiative does not require genital inspections or pelvic exams in sports physicals or repeated verification, as opponents claim,” wrote Anderson.
The Center Square reached out to Shuey to ask why the paper was refusing to publish the opinion piece in support of the initiative, after having published an anti I-638 piece last month.
“Let me explain my thinking behind this,” wrote Shuey via email.
“A few years ago, under our former editor, The Review ran a column from a national columnist criticizing transgender participation in sports and we got quite a bit of flak for it from our readers, many of whom threatened to unsubscribe. The next week we had so many letters to the editor criticizing us that it took up the whole Opinion page.”
“As the current editor, I’m not willing to risk putting our paper in that position again,” he continued. “It was quite the ordeal, and it took a bit of time to earn trust back from our readers. I hope that helps provide some context on where I’m coming from. I’m open to discussing this further if you’d like,” Shuey wrote.
Shuey indicated he would provide a phone interview on Thursday morning, but then emailed to say he was only going to talk “off the record” to provide context for the decision not to run Anderson’s op-ed. The Center Square declined the “off the record” conversation.