Sage Steele says ESPN celebrating Lia Thomas was a ‘turning point’ for her at company

Ex-ESPN anchor Sage Steele said she was told “not to” discuss certain political topics on social media when working at the network.

Steele said that, when the story of athlete Riley Gaines speaking out against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas broke in 2022, she didn’t understand “from a journalistic perspective” why ESPN wasn’t covering the story, “especially for a network that champions women so much.” She said ESPN selected Thomas, who was born male and now identifies as a woman, to be “honored” for women’s history month in March 2023.

“Anybody can say what they want to say about themselves and the pronouns and all that crap, but we know what he is,” Steele said on Fox News’ Hanging Out with Sean Hannity podcast. “And I think that there are millions of — we know that there are millions of other women that they could’ve chosen to celebrate, and they chose to celebrate