USA Fencing has acknowledged a forthcoming federal investigation into an incident that occurred at one among its occasions the place a ladies’s fencer was punished for refusing to face a transgender competitor.
The investigation, which will likely be carried out by the newly-formed Title IX investigations group along side the US Division of Schooling and Division of Justice, was introduced on Friday by Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon.
The incident, which occurred on the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland on March 30, noticed feminine fencer Stephanie Turner take a knee in protest of trans competitor Redmond Sullivan.
Turner was then disqualified from the occasion and escorted out of the venue.
USA Fencing supplied an announcement to Fox Information Digital saying it can cooperate with the investigation.
“USA Fencing will respond and cooperate to any inquiry as required by law,” the assertion learn.
The incident involving Turner rapidly drew nationwide consideration after a video of her taking a knee to protest Sullivan went viral.
The footage ignited widespread consciousness and backlash in opposition to USA Fencing’s gender eligibility insurance policies.
Turner instructed Fox Information Digital that she got here to the choice to take the knee the evening earlier than the occasion, when she checked the competitors swimming pools and noticed that she can be competing in opposition to Sullivan.
“I saw that I was going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. I’m going to take the knee,’” Turner stated. “I knew what I had to do because USA Fencing had not been listening to women’s objections regarding [its gender eligibility policy].”
USA Fencing first enacted its present trans-inclusion coverage in 2023.
It permits transgender athletes to compete within the ladies’s class at each the junior and senior degree after finishing one calendar yr of testosterone suppression remedy.
Proof of compliant hormone remedy have to be supplied previous to competitors, however the group has taken even additional steps to prioritize its trans opponents.
In November 2022, it introduced a coverage to provide desire when choosing host cities for nationwide tournaments to states with out legal guidelines that “harm members of LGBTQ communities” and states that don’t “have laws undermining the reproductive health of women.”
That coverage went into impact within the 2023 season, the identical yr it modified its gender coverage. It later launched a record of states that it meant to “avoid where possible” and the states that it flat out wouldn’t enable internet hosting main occasions.
This previous December, a nonprofit fencing group, the Honest Fencing Group, penned an open letter to USA Fencing Board Members urging the re-evaluation of its stance on a number of points, together with transgender inclusion.
Simply days later, nevertheless, board members voted in opposition to a number of motions to approve an all-female process drive to re-evaluate and revise the present transgender coverage, in an 8-3 vote.
Now, after siding in opposition to ladies fencers looking for safety from trans inclusion, USA Fencing faces potential federal sanctions.
This Title IX investigation will likely be one of many first missions for the newly shaped Title IX investigations group, which was formally shaped final week.
The initiative was introduced final Friday with the mission to “protect female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.”
