Women’s fencer Stephanie Turner said she’ll be returning from fencing “for a while” after receiving 12 months of probation by US fencing for refusing to compete with transgender athletes last month.
Stephanie Turner, 31, was disqualified from a USA Fencing cherry blossom when she took her knees, not the biologically born 20-year-old fence Redmond Sullivan.
The drama that followed the decision to make national headlines “disturbed my training and confused my interactions when I go out in public, and since I won’t compete in the US any time soon, it will certainly disrupt my competition,” she said. He told Fox News.
USA Fencing slapped her on 12 months of probation, which doesn’t prohibit her from competing, but Turner said he would “take a break from fencing for a while.”
Turner said she would join the movement and ban trans athletes from women’s sports while she was away from Piste.
“As long as it takes to solve this, I’ll be in the public eye,” she told the outlet.
Since kneeling in protest, Turner said she gets a “dirty” look from some of her friends, including that she is part of the LGBTQ community, but she didn’t know how she felt about transathletes in female sports, Fox reported.
“I know some of the negative comments my friends had. I keep in mind that I will give them plenty of space, but I’m sure they’ll end up coming in the future given my belief that this policy and this ideology is unsustainable,” Turner said.
Turner was invited to appear before the House Oversight Subcommittee to implement government efficiency to testify on the case alongside U.S. Fencing Committee Chairman Damien Lehfeldt. The hearing is scheduled for May 7th.
Trump’s Department of Education is investigating whether U.S. Fencing violated Title IX by refusing to comply with an executive order entitled “Exclude men from women’s sports.” The Maryland State Tournament was not an NCAA or school-certified event.
USA Fencing adopted its current inclusion policy in 2023.
“U.S. Fencing will respond and cooperate with any investigation required by law,” the organization said in a statement responding to the investigation.
Turner, who has been fencing for over a decade since leaving Philadelphia’s fencing academy, has said he wouldn’t sign up for events he knows he could usually face a transgender opponent, but this time he did so as a form of protest. According to the Daily Mail, Turner had been competing with male enemies a week before the protest.
“Redmond doesn’t listen to me, he comes to me and he thinks I might hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s going on. He says, ‘Are you okay?’ And I say, ‘Sorry. I have a lot of love and respect for you, but I won’t fence you,” Turner said earlier this month.
USA Fencing says Turner was disqualified for refusing to compete rather than protest.
