USA Fencing transgender controversy gets DOGE hearing after Stephanie Turner is punished for protest kneel

DOGE subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene connected Tuesday announced a proceeding addressing USA Fencing's sex eligibility policies that let biologic antheral transgender athletes to vie successful the women's category. 

The proceeding is scheduled for May 7. 

The announcement comes weeks aft women's fencer Stephanie Turner was punished for kneeling successful protestation of a trans rival successful a wide publicized incident. 

Turner has been invited to the proceeding on with Damien Lehfeldt, committee seat of USA Fencing, to testify.

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"Women’s sports are for women only. Radical leftists pushing to fto biologic men vie against women are destroying just contention and putting pistillate athletes successful carnal danger. Stephanie Turner had the courageousness to telephone retired this insanity, and she’s a leader to women crossed America," Greene said successful the announcement. 

"USA Fencing indispensable beryllium held accountable for demeaning women and denying them of the accidental to win successful their ain sport. It is retired of compliance with President Trump’s enforcement bid and it should not beryllium recognized arsenic the National Governing Body for fencing if it continues to defy the law."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Friday a recently formed Title IX investigations squad volition beryllium probing the incidental involving Turner and trans rival Redmond Sullivan. 

USA Fencing antecedently provided a connection to Fox News Digital saying it volition cooperate with the investigation. 

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

"USA Fencing volition respond and cooperate to immoderate enquiry arsenic required by law," the connection said. 

The incidental involving Turner rapidly drew nationalist attraction aft a video of her taking a genu to protestation Sullivan went viral. The footage ignited wide consciousness and backlash against USA Fencing's sex eligibility policies. 

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

Turner told Fox News Digital she decided to instrumentality a genu the nighttime earlier the lawsuit erstwhile she checked the contention pools and saw 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]."

USA Fencing antecedently 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.

A USA Fencing spokesperson besides told Fox News Digital Turner was not penalized for her stance against trans inclusion. She was penalized for refusing to compete. 

"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.

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USA Fencing past addressed the contention with a nationalist connection 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 harmless communities wherever each athletes, and assemblage members, person a place," the connection said. 

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"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. Hate 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. 

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 during 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.

In December, the nonprofit Fair Fencing Organization penned an unfastened missive to USA Fencing committee members, urging the reevaluation 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 with a planetary contention aft Turner's viral protest. 

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