Finally Free from Her ESPN Muzzle, Sage Steele Speaks Out for Women in Trans Sports Debate

After settling a free speech dispute with Disney-owned ESPN, veteran sportscaster Sage Steele is using her platform to support and protect female sports. 

Sage's case stems from comments she made on a popular podcast in 2021, where she voiced her disapproval of Disney's COVID vaccination policy. In response, the company forced Sage to apologize and took away high-profile assignments. So, she sued Disney for violating her constitutional rights. 

"I have been part of empowering women in this man's world, starting with myself – as a little girl, having this dream of being a sportscaster, but on every level professionally with women – and I will never stop that," said Steele. 

Recently, Steele and ESPN mutually agreed to part ways. Steele announced her decision on social media, "Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/DISNEY, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my First Amendment rights more freely. I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter." 

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During a recent interview with CBN – Steele celebrated her constitutional right to speak out on various issues such as the attempted takeover of women's sports by the transgender movement. 

"This is not new that women and men are different," Steele said. "Physiologically, men are stronger than women – that's just how it is. God made us differently, in many beautiful ways."

She went on to emphasize, "Transgender women, biological men – do not belong in competing in sports with women, period. It's actually ridiculous that we're even having this conversation in our society today." 

Numbers from a Gallup Poll show almost 70% of people agree that transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that correspond with the gender they were born with. It also shows that more Americans consider changing one's gender to be "morally wrong" – which is up 4% since 2021. 

"I understand the fear that comes when you speak out – I am the poster child for what happens when you are true to yourself at times. I'm okay with it now," said Steele.

Steele was recently lambasted in the media for defending ESPN colleague Sam Ponder against bigotry claims after she tweeted it's unfair to ask young girls to compete against athletes who were male at birth. 

"I do find it fascinating that it's only going on direction, it's biological men wanting to play sports with biological women," said Steele. "Why aren't biological women wanting to go and play sports with biological men. Why isn't it going the other way? Because they can't – for the most part, we can't and that's okay." 

Steele ended the interview with CBN saying sports is what brings people together – that while there's definitely a place for transgender/biological male athletes, it's not in the arena with females.