USA Fencing disqualified a fencer from a Maryland women’s tournament after she refused to compete against a transgender opponent.
Stephanie Turner was competing in a USA Fencing-sanctioned regional tournament at the University of Maryland on Sunday when she took a knee in protest of her transgender opponent, Redmond Sullivan, before her match. An official then showed Turner a black card, and she was disqualified from the rest of the tournament for refusing to compete.
“I told them that I was refusing to fence because this person is a man, and I'm a woman, and this is a women's tournament and I refuse to fence on principle,” Turner later told Fox News.
She has not been disqualified from other events or tournaments.
“A fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason,” USA Fencing told the Associated Press.
“Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport's integrity.”
The organization also said it understood that the conversation around transgender participation is “evolving.”
“USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion, and we're committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic & Paralympic movement.”
Turner’s protest comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have gone on a crusade against trans people, banning trans athletes from women’s sports and even scrubbing references to them from government websites. In January, he signed an executive order declaring that there are only two sexes, male and female, and insisting that it would “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
A federal judge in March blocked the enforcement of a Trump executive order banning transgender people from the military.
In 2023, USA Fencing enacted a policy allowing transgender and non-binary athletes to compete “in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
“Within our divisions, USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of gender expression for participation in any division,” its policy states online.
