After being eliminated from a competition for declining to compete against a trans opponent, the female fencer took aim at the sport’s culture, which had caused her to fear similar circumstances for years.
Stephanie Turner gained a platform to highlight the “unfair” circumstances she encountered if she declined to compete against other transgender athletes after her widely shared protest at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland.
Before ever attacking Redmond Sullivan during their fight at the University of Maryland in College Park on March 30, the 31-year-old kneeled on the piste, or fencing strip.
Turner claimed she generally doesn’t sign up for events when she knows there’s a potential at going against a transgender opponent, but did so this time as she, coming up with the notion to protest.
“So what I was doing already was just avoiding tournaments where I knew there was a transgender fencer. But at this point, what else should I do? Should I just not sign up for any tournaments? I have no other options,” Turner stated.
Fearing that USA Fencing officials would disagree with her personally and destroy her career, Turner, a competitor from the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, has refrained from voicing her concerns to them.
According to Turner, “I was like, I don’t even want to reach out because if I do, then I won’t ever have a fair bout in my life.”
In the name of female sports, she exposed the inner workings of the fencing community, where many members have opinions that differ from her own.
“There are a lot of people who are for this [trans athletes in women’s sports] who are referees. I would lose favor within the sight of referees and I could end up with a biased bout. I could lose friends who I don’t know what their position is on this,” she continued.
Turner received a black card, the maximum punishment in sports, for her protest at the Cherry Blossom Open, which automatically disqualifies her from the competition.
Her unwillingness to participate against Sullivan, a qualified opponent who complied with the International Fencing Federation’s (FIE) regulations, was the reason for her black card, the organization said.
“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 stated.
“USA Fencing is obligated to follow the letter of those rules and ensure that participants respect the standards set at the international level.”
She/her is the pronouns that Sullivan uses. She is a member of the Wagner College Women’s Fencing team on Staten Island.
Turner might not grasp what was occurring right away, which worried the 20-year-old Connecticut native.
“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you’,” Turner stated.
Neither the NCAA nor the school approved the tournament.
The “gender opposite of the gender associated with the sex assigned at birth” is the opponent that transgender athletes can compete against according to USA fencing regulations.
Only female athletes who have completed a year of testosterone suppression medication and provided documentation of their hormone therapy compliance are eligible to compete in female events.
After voting for President Donald Trump in November, Turner, a lifelong Democrat, claims she did so because of his campaign pledge to outlaw transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
The “radical” views of the party were criticized by her.
“This movement shouldn’t be political, but I do find there is one party that has been totally captured by radical politics, radical social politics that have acted as sort of a litmus test to let me know whether a politician is willing to lie just to advance their own political career,” Turner stated.
“That just opened the door for me to start listening more to the other side, really. Because if you’re willing to lie to me and tell me that a man can become a woman, then I wonder what else could you be lying to me about?”
This information has been sourced from NY Post.
Leave a Comment