Skip to main content

ESPN Reporter M.A. Voepel Comes Out As Transgender

Longtime ESPN reporter M.A. Voepel has announced his gender transition.

Voepel, who has covered women’s basketball and college sports for ESPN since 1996, is one of the recipients of the 2022 Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Voepel noted that the upcoming presentation of the Gowdy Award helped inspire his decision to make his transition public.

“In sports media, we’re lucky to tell stories of others’ journeys,” Voepel posted on Twitter earlier this week. “We have our own, too. Part of mine is being transgender, and I’m transitioning to male. … I have the great honor of receiving Gowdy Award next month from Naismith Hall of Fame, and wanted to do that as authentic self, hence this announcement now. Fear can keep us paralyzed for decades, especially when we think we will lose all that is dear to us.”

Voepel is a graduate of the University of Missouri. He worked at newspapers in Columbia, Mo., Newport News, Va., and Kansas City before joining ESPN.