Female Fencer Punished for Forfeiting, Protesting Against Male Opponent
“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.”
Stephanie Turner, 31, refused to compete against a male opponent during a USA Fencing Event in Maryland.
Turner and the man, Redmond Sullivan, participated in the Division IA Women’s Foil.
Sullivan fenced for the male team at Wagner College last season. He switched to the female team this season.
Turner took a knee and forfeited the match. From Fox News:
“I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So 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.’
“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.”
Historic Protest: Female Fencer Takes a Knee in Bout Against Male Opponent, Faces Immediate Disqualification
After receiving a black card for refusing to compete against a man, Redmond Sullivan's female opponent was expelled from the @USAFencing event at the Univ. of… pic.twitter.com/IloSnrb2Iu
— ICONS (@icons_women) April 2, 2025
The referee issued Turner a black card, the most severe penalty in fencing.
A black card means an expulsion from the competition. The fencer could face further sanctions.
A USA Fencing spokesperson said the punishment was for not fencing, not because of her stance against males in female sports:
“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification was not related to any personal statement but was merely the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit,” the spokesperson said.
“According to the FIE (International Fencing Federation) Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport’s integrity.”
Turner told Fox News Digital she made the decision not to participate against Sullivan the night before:
Turner came to the decision the night before the event when she checked the competition pools and saw that she would be competing against Sullivan, whom she had read about in an article last year.
“I saw that I was going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. I’m going to take the knee,'” Turner told Fox News Digital.
Turner went through all her warm-ups that day and went on to fence in four bouts before her matchup with the trans athlete. When it came, she was “nervous and shaky,” but was sure about her decision.
USA Fencing has no problem with males competing against females. The organization told Fox News:
“USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces. The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day,” the statement read.
“We respect the viewpoints on all sides and encourage our members to continue sharing them with us as the matter evolves. It’s important for the fencing community to engage in this dialogue, but we expect this conversation to be conducted respectfully, whether at our tournaments or in online spaces. The way to progress is by respectful discussion based in evidence.”
Turner acknowledged the sport’s attitude towards female participants. She also recounted how Sullivan responded to her: “Redmond says to me, ‘Well you know, there is a member on the board of directors here who supports me, and there is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get blackcarded,’ and I said, ‘I know.”
Turner never registered for events with male participants. She believes Sullivan registered after she did, or else she would not have been there.
Turner is also another female who went blue to red due to the left’s obsession with allowing males in female sports and spaces.
The belief has remained hidden until now because Turner feared how her LGBT friends would treat her:
For Turner, one of the sacrifices she is most concerned about is impeding the friendships she has with people in the LGBT community, who she said don’t currently know about her stance on the issue.
As a lifelong Democrat, Turner insists she never opposed LGBTQ people. But the issue of trans inclusion of women’s sports has driven her away from supporting the party, and she now identifies as a “new Republican conservative.”
“I voted red down the ticket this year,” Turner said. “It was like waking up to the lies of the mainstream media… Just to watch so many of my friends have this glassy-eyed look while just defending this policy because their brains can not manage the possibility that their party or their position has been wrong on this, and perhaps this isn’t a civil rights movement, and they have been misled.”
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Comments
USA Fencing needs to get the Bud Light treatment
Having fenced for the better part of a decade as a young man, I don’t have a high opinion of USAF or even collegiate fencing in general. It’s like they managed to suck the soul out of the sport even back then.
I’m curious when that was? I fenced in the late 80s, and again in the 00s and 10s. I only did competition a few times, but saw some things that had me scratching my head.
She is 100% right. Men have the advantage here in every single way. Wear that Black Card with pride. After all, protestors enjoy the highest status, right? Protesting is the voice of the unheard, etc.
A stronger male wants to cheat and take unfair advantage of weaker females in order to win. Finally, one brave female refuses to play the stupid game.
So who’s at fault for this travesty? Who gets the blame?
Well gee whiz, the female, of course! Why couldn’t she just lose and make the man look good?
“This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards”
This policy closes the barn door after the horse has fled.
Stronger.
Quicker.
Likely a longer reach.
Seems like a fair match to me. /sarc
Stronger isn’t as much of an advantage in fencing as some other sports. But it is an advantage. Quicker… might be looking at advantage woman, here. There is an element of explosive power that comes into saber fencing that would tend to somewhat advantage men, but in foil (and somewhat in epee) technique has much more authority. And women have that finesse thing going on, often giving them an advantage in speed. Oh yeah, and reach. (Definite advantage there, though you have to know how to use it. And there are ways to advantage a person with shorter reach, too.)
I have fenced. I have fenced women. I have watch other men fence women. They are generally at a disadvantage in everything I listed. Yes a better female fencer will beat a poorer male fencer. If they are of a similar level of training bet on the male. That is what was going on here.
A very good female fencer can beat a bad male fencer,
Not a passable one. Definitely not a good one.
This endless pretense does no one any good. Especially women–as we can see by the way they are being eliminated from women’s sports by men.
‘Lia’ Thompson was a crappy male swimmer.
‘Lia’ Thompson is a champion female swimmer.
No..
“This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport’s integrity.”
As of this moment, the sport has no integrity. (If a sport can have integrity.)
“The way to progress is by respectful discussion based in evidence.”
The only evidence being presented is that the sport is governed by a bunch of virtue-seeking idiots who apparently never took seventh grade biology.
“USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces. The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day,” the statement read.”
I am fed up with this lie perpetrated by USA Fencing. Nothing prevents Sullivan from competing in the men’s division except for the fact that he will lose.
What about the safe spaces for women, who actually need them?
“…expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces…”
Anyone can fence. Not anyone can win at a high level.
This is not about access. It is all about BS sexual politics that have no place in sports.
create inclusive, safe spaces
Uhhhhh….. [insert that puppet looking sideways meme here]
everyone should have the ability to participate in sports
Umm.., they DO. There’s a men’s tournament in the other side of the gym. You can smell them from here.
First off, when is it a “fair competition standard” to force a woman (female) to fence against a man (male) in a women’s fencing competition. It isn’t an never has been in any sport. And second, the sport’s integrity went into the toilet the moment the International Fencing Federation allowed men to compete against women in women’s fencing competition. Men have an inherent advantage over a woman and this should simply not be allowed to happen.
It isn’t an never has been in any sport.
This is not entirely true. Shooting sports often do not have sex categories. I am not sure about archery. Auto racing does not now restrict women from competing. (Though, I do understand the National Parking Competition is entirely closed to women due to liability funding issues.)
And, from a personal view, modern fencing gives (outside of epee and saber) little advantage to a man, except in reach. In epee and saber, there is more explosive power required and (sometimes) more forcing of parries, giving some advantage to strength. There is also an intimidation factor with size in saber, with your opponent rushing at you (though a fencing master would whack you soundly for giving in to that). A great many tournaments at the beginner level are mixed, in order to provide enough fencers to make pools, but those are always foil.
“except in reach”
And strength.
And length of stride.
Consider the advantage in being able to touch your opponent while completely outside their reach.
It’s a rather large advantage.
Another expansion for FIE is Fn Ignorant Europeans.
‘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.’
________________________________________________________________
clear, concise, to the point–brava, young lady–no need for you to be sorry or to apologize–your behaviour was polite and in accordance with the personal honour of your sport
your opponent dishonours himself, whatever board is involved for allowing him in the women’s competetion at all and your division of the sport in general–he seeks to take unfair advantage of the female competitors
Sounds to me like yet another man who couldn’t successfully compete against other men in his chosen sport decided to to come out as “trans” to compete against women and get the top awards. How disgusting is that.
Bravo Miss Turner, I would have a swift kick to the gonads for emphasis.
Redmond Sullivan’s fencing record. Make of it what you will.
Fencing Tracker – Redmond Sullivan
He was such a poor fencer, he couldn’t even win in women’s competitions.
dont u folks know they changed the definition of woman’s sports so that mediocre men can actually
WIN …. come on get with the program
So USA Fencing says you can believe whatever you want as long as you knuckle under and do what we tell you. Cool, thanks for that.
They haven’t yet gotten them memo that it is no longer 1984.
More women need to be doing this. Stop competing against misogynistic, self-promoting and malignantly narcissistic male tranny cheaters.
Women need to grow a pair and everyone of them should sit in the stands even if one male is entered in any event.
“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately” – Benjamin Franklin
I think a slightly more nuanced approach would have sent a better message and avoided the black card. Don’t decline to fence because that forces a hand you don’t want to be dealt. Instead when the bout begins just stand there. Make no offensive or defensive maneuvers, just stand and wait for your opponent to touch you. It makes your opponents victory meaningless because you didn’t defend yourself.
I wonder if they would also call that a refusal to fence. Something tells me they would.
She wouldn’t be refusing to fence. She would just be fencing very poorly.
Less impact just standing there…. making a stand before the match set the stage.
They likely would, based on experience with another sport. I never saw this occur in fencing.
DW questions how this can still be happening after Trump’s executive order. I’m not 100% sure who USA fencing represents, but it seems to be collegiate.
No. USA Fencing is an independent organization (a “non-profit”). How it gets into this, though, is the National Olympic Committee gets to choose organizations to help run competitions and such that feed into the Olympic organization. This is under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978.
They can support fencing in colleges, yes. And they probably help run NCAA matches, if there are any. (We competed against other schools, just like the ball teams, and I think some of those were NCAA tournaments, but not all were.) And they run a bunch of the just plain old matches between club members across the US. A lot of those are on college grounds, but not restricted to students to compete.
So, it’s one of those NGOs blessed by a pseudo-gov’t agency that is authorized by an actual law (and therefore handed off to the Executive branch).
According to the FIE (International Fencing Federation) Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport’s integrity.””
Not permitted to refuse for ANY reason?
How about injury?
How about the other fencer pulls a gun and says “If you try to fence me, I’ll shoot you?”
How about the other fencer actually shoots you? Do you still have to be trying to fence him while the medics wheel you out of the arena?
Yes, injury would get you eliminated from the tournament, IIRC. I don’t know if it would be a black card. The other two situations are rather silly, as the other fencer would be arrested and removed from the tournament.
Rules that are absolute lead to absurd situations.
I fenced sabre and it doesn’t require strength, just speed. Strength is a beginner’s mistake, as if you can make up for a mistake by doing it hard.
I don’t know what quality a woman is supposed to be missing here.
She certainly won’t be injured by a male.
It’s basically a video game without all the electronics. Although now they have electric scoring I think, instead of two judges from each team as in the old days, trying to follow the action. Still there are right of way rules that might defeat electronic scoring, hits over steel, etc.
It’s basically a video game without all the electronics.
LOL! No, it is not.
There are no men’s and women’s divisions in NCAA shooting. No speed, no power advantage. Women have a psychological advantage. Having a women’s division means separation and this was not given to her. Want trans in competition? Make an open division and so state that. I don’t applaud dumping on real women. Spoiler alert: No trans would fare better in an open division.
Women are not as fast and generally not as athletic. These are things you are not aware of?
Watch a woman classical piano player
Bullcarp, it doesn’t.
The speed required is explosive and is more generally seen in male musculature.
her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent
Except he wasn’t an eligible opponent based on reality, and not the religious preferences of Progressives. (And USA Fencing has been sliding fundamentalist Progressive for a while now.)
Turner is also another female who went blue to red
Not really, she didn’t. I will just about guarantee she’s still a Progressive – probably pro-homosexual, still, and a feminist. She says she voted red all down the ticket this year, but I’ll wait to see if she argues for conservatism at any point, and not just against fundamentalist Progressivism.
hey she didnt want to get
stuck by his tip
can women do the same on the battle field against real males???
b/c we are now trained to believe that women are equal to the males in their physical abilities as the job actually demands
Since I’ve posted several comments….
I fenced (poorly) at the collegiate level in the late 80s.
I then picked it back up in the 00s and 10s for a bit, introducing my son and wife to the sport. I think my son participated in a single competition. But we all enjoyed it and worked at it. I have worked as an armorer and a strip judge (not in sanctioned competition). I have fenced with both men and women.
Thinking about another sport in which I participated – Tae Kwon Do – I remember some tournaments allowing men and women to compete together in form and technique competitions, but not sparring. Even the small children were separated by sex. And, when hearing it discussed among some of the masters, it wasn’t because they were afraid of little boys maybe hurting little girls – it was because they wanted to ensure the boys knew it was never alright to hit a girl. It was an honor thing. Adults could choose to do it in limited circumstances, but not the children.
Might be different now, as so much in America is. But that was one group of athletes training up the next generation.
sparred for a belt qualification here in the mid-nineties–the dojo was run by a “sensei” of rather dubious background–he knew my feelings regards violence towards women as we had discussed a few times (my lady was / is an accomplished kick-boxer)–he brought in a ringer to spar with me–a lady from ft hood–a black belt herself, with the butch haircut, the tats, the attitude–told him would spar with him for the qualification but not with her–he laughed and said he wanted to see what she could do with me–blocked most of her moves/shots as was trying not to harm her–frustrated with me, she says ” what’s the matter with you? you one of those guys afraid to hit a woman? i’m not gonna break. come on. “–things did not go well after that–so, did not harm her but ended it–quit the dojo then and there
regards women and speed / hand speed–have known a very few (my lady included) that are ray leonard fast (or faster)–and, more importantly, accurate–man or woman, you’d best have reflexes in the same realm or you’re going to get put on your ass before you can get your hands up
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