Stephanie Turner, a 31-year-old female fencer, is facing penalties from USA Fencing for refusing to compete against a biologically male opponent. Turner, who previously avoided tournaments involving transgender fencers, found out the night before competing in the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland that she would be up against Redmond Sullivan, a gender-confused male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the time came to fence Sullivan, Turner kneeled and refused to participate, stating, “I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.” Following her refusal, she was disqualified and escorted out of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n USA Fencing’s stance, in line with the International Fencing Federation’s rules, is that refusing to fence a properly entered fencer results in disqualification and sanctions. However, Turner believes that her refusal to compete against a transgender opponent is likely to harm her life and career. Turner, a former lifelong Democrat, stated this issue has shifted her political allegiance. She was clear that she felt compelled to take this stance as she considers women’s objections to competing against transgender individuals to be ignored by USA Fencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biological male’s participation in women’s sports undermines the reasons for sex-specific athletics and deprives female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities. Surveys indicate that public opinion supports limiting athletic participation to members of a team’s designated sex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stephanie Turner, a 31-year-old female fencer, is facing penalties from USA Fencing for refusing to compete against a biologically male opponent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":257280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-715","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-715"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"511","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,511,805],"tags":[4861,7186,456,11234],"class_list":["post-257278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-culture","category-foreground","tag-gender-ideology","tag-lgbt-ideology","tag-transgenderism","tag-womens-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n