COLLEGE PARK, Maryland (LifeSiteNews) — A female fencer is being penalized by USA Fencing for refusing to compete against a biological male opponent, saying that her stand will “at least for a moment, destroy my life” but needed to be taken.
Fox News reports that 31-year-old Stephanie Turner, who previously made a point of trying to evade tournaments in which she would have to face “transgender” fencers, found herself up against gender-confused male Redmond Sullivan at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland. She learned about the matchup the night before and made her decision how to handle it then.
Standing by my convictions—no matter the cost. 🤺⚔️
Stephanie Turner, a women’s fencer, speaks out on refusing to compete against a male (transgender) opponent, accepting the backlash & penalties with courage.
This isn’t just about sports—it’s about fairness, truth, and the… pic.twitter.com/LGvtgLeOAn
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) April 3, 2025
After four matches against other women, she says, when the match came, “I took a knee immediately at that point. 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.’”
When Redmond approached her, not understanding why she was kneeling and suspecting she may be injured, Turner said, “I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.”
“Redmond says to me, ‘Well you know, there is a member on the board of directors here who supports me, and there is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get black-carded,’ and I said, ‘I know,'” she continued.
Turner received a black card, was brought before the bout committee, and escorted out of the tournament.
“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification 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,” a spokesperson for USA Fencing said. “According to the FIE (International Fencing Federation) Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. 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.”
USA Fencing announced in 2022 that gender-confused men would be allowed to compete against women as long as they have been suppressing testosterone for at least 12 months, though sex is an immutable characteristic, and men have inherent physical advantages that are not nullified by hormones.
Turner told Fox the ordeal “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 yet, “I knew what I had to do because USA Fencing had not been listening to women’s objections.”
She also said that, as a former lifelong Democrat, the issue has radically reoriented her politics.
“I voted red down the ticket this year,” Turner said. “It was like waking up to the lies of the mainstream media […] just to watch so many of my friends have this glassy-eyed look while just defending this policy because their brains can not manage the possibility that their party or their position has been wrong on this, and perhaps this isn’t a civil rights movement, and they have been misled […] something needs to be done, and there are activists who have embedded themselves in authoritative positions in sports bodies.”
As a retired D1 @NCAA fencer, I was forced to compete against men who claimed to be women. Female athletes dedicate our lives to our sport, only to have men take our spots, our titles, and our future.
Kudos to the women who refuse to accept this injustice. #SaveWomensSports https://t.co/1TDBbrJhGF
— Juliana Peceli (@notorious_jcp) April 2, 2025
Inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted by leftists as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered” by cross-sex hormone use; therefore, “the advantage to [gender-confused men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Critics also warn that forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Polls show that the LGBT lobby’s protests of victimhood and insistence the issue is overblown is not resonating with the general public. Last month, Pew Research found that 66 percent of Americans support limiting athletic participation to actual members of a team’s designated sex, with agreement among independents and Democrats also rising since 2022.