USA Fencing defends trans inclusion policies amid mass backlash after Stephanie Turner kneels in protests

USA Fencing has travel nether occurrence aft a viral video of women's fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling successful protestation of a transgender opponent. 

Prominent figures, including J. K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova, person weighed successful connected societal media, alongside thousands of women's sports rights activists.

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Fencer Stephanie Sullivan kneels successful beforehand of a USA Fencing official. (Courtesy of ICONS)

USA Fencing 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." 

How did USA Fencing get to this point?

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. 

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.

"We’ve heard from a fig of members, including members of the Board and members of our elite jock community, asking whether continuing to spot events successful areas with either anti-LGBTQ laws oregon anti-abortion laws aligns with our halfway values arsenic an organization," said USA Fencing CEO Phill Andrews successful the argumentation page. "After a robust treatment with our Board and our unit team, USA Fencing has moved to springiness penchant to those states without these laws."

In November 2023, the enactment 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. The states connected the "do not allow" database were Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. 

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

The states connected its "avoid wherever possible" database see Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

This operation of polices preceded an influx of biologic antheral fencers competing successful women's and girls' USA Fencing-sanctioned events implicit the past 2 years. Some of those competitors antecedently competed successful the men's category. By September 2023, 4 biologic antheral fencers, who antecedently competed successful the men's category, achieved USA Fencing podium finishes successful the women's category. 

Turner told Fox News Digital the quantity of trans competitors is adjacent higher than that. 

"In fencing, personally, I spot it rather often," Turner said. "I person witnessed transgender fencers successful women's tournaments and girls tournaments successful antithetic property categories, specifically Y-14 (the youngest property group)." 

The trans jock Turner refused to vie against past weekend, Redmond Sullivan, competed successful men's events up until June 2023, according to Sullivan's illustration leafage connected Fencing Tracker. The leafage shows nary competitions for Sullivan from June 2023 until a instrumentality connected Sept. 28, 2024 – the athlete's archetypal contention successful the women's class astatine an lawsuit successful Newtown, Connecticut. Sullivan past went connected to triumph 2 golden medals, 1 astatine the Connecticut Division Junior Olympic Qualifiers connected Dec. 8 and 1 astatine the Connecticut Division Summer National Qualifiers connected March 16.

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.

"Politics aside, it is simply a tenable petition to signifier a task unit to bash a deeper dive connected this contented successful fencing and make a harmless abstraction wherever the voices of each women are heard without ridicule and abuse," the missive said.

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. 

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

"USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and nonbinary 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 said.

"We respect the viewpoints connected each sides and promote our members to proceed sharing them with america arsenic the substance evolves. It's important for the fencing assemblage to prosecute successful this dialogue, but we expect this speech to beryllium conducted respectfully, whether astatine our tournaments oregon successful online spaces. The mode to advancement is by respectful treatment based successful evidence." 

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A USA Fencing spokesperson besides told Fox News Digital 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.

"According to the FIE (International Fencing Federation) Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to garbage to obstruction different decently entered fencer for immoderate reason. Under these rules, specified a refusal results successful disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This argumentation exists to support just contention standards and sphere the sport’s integrity." 

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