USA Fencing Defends Decision To Disqualify Female Athlete For Refusing To Compete Against Biological Male: “Will Always Err On The Side Of Inclusion”

Erring on the side of inclusion…by disqualifying a female athlete.

Of course a hot topic recently has been the issue of biological men competing in women’s sports. It really seemed to come to the forefront back in 2021, when one of the top collegiate women’s swimmers was a biological male named Lia Thomas, who had transitioned to female after previously competing on the men’s swim team at Penn. University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines became an outspoken critic of the NCAA for allowing a biological male to compete against women, and received a fair amount of criticism for her position.

Naturally in this day and age if you take the common sense position that men shouldn’t be competing in women’s sports you’re labeled “transphobic” or a bigot, but that’s just where we are these days. But it seems like more and more people are finally starting to admit that men do, in fact, have physical advantages over women in some sports and maybe it’s NOT fair to allow someone who is biologically male to compete against someone who’s biologically female.

But apparently USA Fencing still doesn’t see the problem.

The governing body in charge of selecting the US Olympic fencing teams has come under fire recently after disqualifying a female athlete who refused to compete against a transgender competitor during a match over the weekend.

Stephanie Turner was set to compete against transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan during a USA Fencing-sanctioned regional tournament in Maryland on March 30, but decided the night before that she wasn’t going to go through with the match – so instead, she took a knee in protest:

“Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.’”

Historic Protest: Female Fencer Takes a Knee in Bout Against Male Opponent, Faces Immediate Disqualification

After receiving a black card for refusing to compete against a man, Redmond Sullivan's female opponent was expelled from the @USAFencing event at the Univ. of… pic.twitter.com/IloSnrb2Iu

— ICONS (@icons_women) April 2, 2025

Turner was then given a black card from the referee, which apparently signifies “serious rule infractions or unsportsmanlike behavior.” And then she was disqualified not only from the match against Sullivan but from the entire tournament, and escorted out of the building.

She says that she acknowledges that her protest may hurt her fencing career, but felt it was important to take a stand:

“It will probably, at least for a moment, destroy my life. I don’t think that it’s going to be easy for me from now on going to fencing tournaments. I don’t think it’s going to be easy for me at practice. It’s very hard for me to do this.” 

And for their part, USA Fencing is standing by their decision, claiming that the disqualification had nothing to do with the political statement Turner was making:

“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification, which applies to this tournament only, was not related to any personal statement but was merely the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit.”

USA Fencing rules ensure that Sullivan is “eligible” to compete against women thanks to their transgender athlete policy adopted in 2023, which the organization says was meant to make the sport more inclusive:

“We understand that the conversation on equity and inclusion pertaining to transgender participation in sport 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.”

Meanwhile, the organization has come under fire from openly gay former tennis champion Martina Navratilova, who criticized USA Fencing for not recognizing the biological differences between males and females and putting women in harm’s way:

This is what happens when female athletes protest! Anyone here still thinks this is fair??? I am fuming… and shame on @USAFencing , shame on you for doing this. How dare you throw women under the gender bullshit bus!!! https://t.co/2ojOJvJiLx

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) April 2, 2025

And the Trump administration also voiced their support for Turner:

Courageous female athlete Stephanie Turner recounts defying a male opponent in her fencing tournament by refusing to face him.

When warned she’d be disqualified for not competing, she replied, "I know."

"I told them I was refusing to fence because this person is a man, and I… pic.twitter.com/MhtjxBmxNK

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 3, 2025

But for now, it seems she’s simply forced to accept the consequences of standing up for fairness in women’s sports – even if that means getting disqualified for doing it.