Aggressive fencer Stephanie Turner — who selected to be disqualified from a event quite than battle a transgender athlete — mentioned she won’t have gotten into the game had she identified this might occur.
“When I first started this was unfathomable,” she informed The Submit of competing towards trans opponents. “I did this for my very own bodily security, as a result of it is a fight sport — and, in competitors setting, males do fence loads more durable than ladies and I don’t need to get damage.
“It makes me very angry to see that we’re going along with somebody else’s fantasy.”
A video of the March thirtieth incident, exhibiting Turner taking a knee throughout the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland, shortly went viral on-line.
She additionally expressed concern about organic males doubtlessly competing towards ladies within the Olympics. “A male athlete theoretically could qualify. If Sullivan gets any better, I mean, why not?”
Nationwide fencing laws permit for competitors by gender identification, and the Worldwide Olympic Committee defers to particular person sports activities’ laws in figuring out {qualifications} — which means a trans athlete might ostensibly ascend to the Olympics.
Turner, 31, added that she normally doesn’t join occasions the place transgender athletes are competing, however lately determined that’s not sustainable.
“It’s not as if I can just continue to keep canceling or avoiding tournaments, because that becomes expensive — and then ultimately I’d never be able to fence if I was just avoiding every tournament where there was a transgender person,” she mentioned.
Turner solely discovered that trans athlete Redmond Sullivan, 20, would even be competing on the College of Maryland in School Park occasion the evening earlier than.
“I started crying because … I find that to be unfair, and I got disappointed with the USFA for continuing to allow this,” Turner mentioned, referring to america Fencing Administration’s guidelines governing transgender participation in feminine sports activities.
Turner, who competes for the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, mentioned she selected to kneel as a result of “I think this is a model of peaceful protest that’s highly visible and can make the sports governing bodies realize that there are more people against these policies than they may realize.”
She recalled she was “as clear-headed as [she] could be” when she took a knee in entrance of Sullivan and knowledgeable the referee that she wouldn’t fence as a result of “this is a women’s tournament.”
When Sullivan requested what she was doing, Turner informed The Submit that she responded: “I’m sorry, but I will not fence you. You’re a man, and I’m a woman, and this is a women’s tournament. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.”
Turner remembers her competitor saying, “OK,” in response but additionally reminding her of USFA guidelines. She added that Sullivan appeared “upset” and “a little peeved.”
Quickly after, a referee knowledgeable Turner that she had been black carded and requested her to signal documentation acknowledging her give up from the event.
“I signed it under objection,” she mentioned. “Almost nobody would make eye contact with me as I walked over.”
Despite the fact that the group stayed silent, she mentioned the outpouring of help in personal has been overwhelming.
“I’ve been flooded with text messages and phone calls telling me that they’re supporting me,” mentioned Turner, who declined to share her line of labor for privateness causes. “There are a few people who are going to dig their heels in and refuse to acknowledge the opposition to this policy, and they are holding the entire athletic body hostage to their own personal political beliefs.”
Turner, who has been fencing for 12 years, cited each her religion and position fashions in ladies’s sports activities activism for giving her the bravery to take a knee for what she believes in.
“My faith as a Christian has given me a lot of conviction in standing my ground,” Turner defined. “And also watching Riley Gaines stand her own ground for all these years and stand up for women made me realize that I wanted to pay her back for all that she’s done.”
Turner additionally warns that the second to vary trans athlete insurance policies is perhaps now or by no means, as a result of the problem will get an increasing number of sophisticated as an increasing number of athletes start competing.
“Reversing these policies has already become expensive, time consuming and often involves litigation,” she defined. “The longer we let this go, the harder it’s going to be to pull back. Halting it now and taking a stand now is better than later.”
Damien Lehfeldt, a director on the USA Fencing board, printed an opus in help of trans athletes in 2023.
“There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning,” Lehfeldt wrote in a weblog publish.
“There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint. Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.”
