Trump admin to investigate USA Fencing incident after punishment to woman who refused to face trans opponent

Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Friday that the newly-formed Title IX investigations squad volition beryllium probing the incidental astatine a USA Fencing lawsuit erstwhile women's fencer Stephanie Turner was disqualified and escorted retired of the venue for taking a genu successful protestation of a transgender opponent. 

McMahon announced the quality during an interrogation connected Fox News' "Faulkner Focus." 

"We person a peculiar Title IX investigations squad that is going to beryllium investigating anyone who was associated with this to marque definite that this doesn't proceed to happen," McMahon said. "The president has made crystal wide that helium is not going to tolerate men being capable to vie successful women's sports, helium signed an enforcement order, and we're upholding Title IX.

"For those who interruption these provisions, we volition analyse you and instrumentality action." 

WHO IS STEPHANIE TURNER? WOMEN'S FENCER WHO KNELT TO PROTEST TRANS OPPONENT AND IGNITED GLOBAL AWARENESS

A Department of Education spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the University of Maryland has "responsibility" for the incidental arsenic the big tract for the lawsuit wherever it took place, arsenic good arsenic Wagner College, which antecedently rostered the transgender fencer. 

"The federation watched arsenic a pistillate rival bravely took a genu and forfeited an inherently unfair fencing lucifer aft discovering that her hostile was a male. No pistillate should person to recuse herself from a lucifer that she trained diligently for due to the fact that she fears for her safety. As a tourney host, University of Maryland has a work to travel Title IX by not allowing males to vie successful pistillate competitions and inhabit female-only intimate facilities," the spokesperson said.  

"Similarly, Wagner College has a work to not let males connected pistillate rosters. Unlike the Biden administration, which weaponized Title IX contrary to its meaning to contradict pistillate athletes their civilian rights, the Trump Administration’s Department of Education and the Department of Justice’s Title IX Special Investigations Team volition not let recipients of national backing to contradict women’s adjacent accidental protections nether the law." 

This probe volition beryllium 1 of the archetypal missions for the recently formed Title IX investigations team, which was officially formed successful conjunction with the Department of Education and Department of Justice past week. The inaugural was announced past Friday with the ngo to "protect pistillate athletes, from the pernicious effects of sex ideology successful schoolhouse programs and activities."

"Protecting women and women’s sports is simply a cardinal precedence for this Department of Justice," Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday. "This collaborative effort with the Department of Education volition alteration our attorneys to instrumentality broad enactment erstwhile women’s sports oregon spaces are threatened and usage the afloat powerfulness of the instrumentality to remedy immoderate usurpation of women’s civilian rights."

TRANSGENDER FENCER SCORES WORLD TITLE OVER 14-TIME WOMEN'S CHAMPION

A Department of Justice spokesperson placed blasted connected erstwhile President Biden for the influx of incidents involving trans athletes causing disruptions to women's sports. 

"Women crossed America person spent the past 4 years disenfranchised by the Biden Administration that allowed men to vie successful girls’ sports - jeopardizing their safety, stealing their scholarships, and stripping them of hard-earned awards. The Title IX Special Investigations Team volition proceed to spell aft atrocious actors who proceed to endanger young women with woke sex ideology and volition leverage each ineligible assets disposable to guarantee states and organizations travel Title IX to support women’s civilian rights and competitory sports," the spokesperson said. 

The incidental involving Turner rapidly drew nationalist attraction aft a video of her taking a genu to protestation transgender hostile Redmond Sullivan astatine the Cherry Blossom Open successful Maryland went viral. The footage ignited wide consciousness and backlash against USA Fencing's sex eligibility policies. 

Turner told Fox News Digital that she came to the determination to instrumentality the genu the nighttime earlier the event, erstwhile she checked the contention pools and saw that she would beryllium competing against Sullivan.

"I saw that I was going to beryllium successful a excavation with Redmond, and from determination I said, ‘OK, let’s bash it. I'm going to instrumentality the knee,'" Turner said. "I knew what I had to bash due to the fact that USA Fencing had not been listening to women's objections regarding [its sex eligibility policy]."

The referees past dealt Turner a achromatic card, which represents the astir terrible penalty, starring to expulsion from the tourney oregon lawsuit for superior regularisation infractions oregon unsportsmanlike behavior.

Turner said she was past escorted to the bout committee and had to explicate what she did. She said the members past handed her a transcript of the association's transgender argumentation and made her motion a papers acknowledging the achromatic card. Turner said she signed the papers nether objection. 

USA Fencing antecedently provided a connection to Fox News Digital addressing the incident. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

"USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary jock policy in 2023. The argumentation was designed to grow entree to the athletics of fencing and make inclusive, harmless spaces. The argumentation is based connected the rule that everyone should person the quality to enactment successful sports and was based upon the probe disposable of the day," the connection read.

A USA Fencing spokesperson besides told Fox News Digital that Turner was not penalized for her stance against trans inclusion, but simply for refusing to fence. 

"In the lawsuit of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification was not related to immoderate idiosyncratic connection but was simply the nonstop effect of her determination to diminution to obstruction an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules intelligibly prohibit," the spokesperson said.

USA Fencing past addressed the contention with a nationalist connection connected Thursday, defending its trans-inclusion policies. 

"USA Fencing remains committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful assemblage for everyone successful our sport. We judge successful the rule of creating a harmless communities wherever each athletes, and assemblage members, person a place," the connection read. 

"While we recognize determination are a scope of perspectives, USA Fencing volition proceed to prosecute successful respectful, research-based dialog and reappraisal arsenic argumentation evolves successful the Olympic and Paralympic question arsenic good arsenic home law, hatred code of immoderate benignant is not acceptable—online oregon successful person. Let's support the speech respectful and the portion welcoming to all." 

The enactment archetypal enacted its existent trans-inclusion argumentation successful 2023. It allows transgender athletes to vie successful the women's class astatine some the inferior and elder level aft completing one calendar twelvemonth of testosterone suppression treatment. Proof of compliant hormone therapy indispensable beryllium provided anterior to competition, but the enactment has taken adjacent further steps to prioritize its trans competitors. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

In November 2022, it announced a argumentation to springiness penchant erstwhile selecting big cities for nationalist tournaments to states without laws that "harm members of LGBTQ communities" and states that bash not "have laws undermining the reproductive wellness of women." That argumentation went into effect successful the 2023 season, the aforesaid twelvemonth it changed its sex policy. It aboriginal released a database of states that it intended to "avoid wherever possible" and the states that it level retired would not let hosting large events.

This past December, a nonprofit fencing organization, the Fair Fencing Organization, penned an unfastened missive to USA Fencing Board Members urging the re-evaluation of its stance connected respective issues, including transgender inclusion.

Just days later, however, committee members voted against respective motions to o.k. an all-female task unit to re-evaluate and revise the existent transgender policy, successful an 8-3 vote. Now, aft siding against women fencers seeking extortion from trans inclusion, USA Fencing finds itself plunged into a planetary contention aft Turner's viral protest. 

Fox News Digital has reached retired to USA Fencing for a effect to the caller announcement of an investigation. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports sum connected X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.