Another incident has reignited the media attention towards the debate of the participation of trans women in female sports. It happened at a fencing tournament at the University of Maryland, when fencer Stephanie Turner kneel and refused to fence against her rival, Redmond Sullivan, a trans woman. She was shown black card and disqualified from the tournament, following the International Fencing Federation rules, that say that under no circumstance a fencer can refuse to fight against a fencer admitted to the tournament.
Although the NCAA, the higher governing body for US college sports banned transgender women from women's sports following Trump's executive order, this tournament was not school-sanctioned, and it followed USA Fencing's rules, which meant that Sullivan was eligible to compete.
"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", Turner explained to Fox News.
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Turner later explained to the The New York Post that she was inspired by her Christian values and that she chose doing that because it's a model of peaceful protest highly visible. She explained that she was polite with Redmond, saying that she had "much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you", but referring to Sullivan as male.
She hopes that her act of protest can "make the sports governing bodies realize that there are more people against these policies than they may realize"
The US fencing federation, USA Fencing, said in a statement that hate speech or targeted hate of any kind is not acceptable and vows to welcome everyone in the sport. They also clarified that Turner's disqualification is only for that tournament, and was not related to her personal statement but only about her refusal to fence.
<social>https://x.com/USAFencing/status/1907864513325482134</social>
This incident happens a few months after Donald Trump banned trans women from female sports, and only a week since World Athletics announced mandatory gender verification tests in female categories.