Female Fencer, Disqualified After Declining to Fight Trans Opponent in ‘Unfair’ Match

In a moment that has since gone viral, 31-year-old Stephanie Turner took a knee on the fencing piste at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland, refusing to engage in a bout against transgender athlete Redmond Sullivan.

Her silent protest, which took place on March 30 at the University of Maryland in College Park, has reignited the growing debate over fairness, inclusion, and the future of women’s sports.

Turner, a member of the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, received a black card — the sport’s most severe penalty — for her refusal to fence an opponent deemed eligible under current rules by USA Fencing and the International Fencing Federation (FIE).

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According to the organization, the penalty was not about Turner’s beliefs but strictly about her violation of competition rules.

“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification, which applies to this tournament only, 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,” USA Fencing said in a statement.

But for Turner, the protest was years in the making. She says she had long avoided entering tournaments where she knew she might be matched with a transgender athlete.

This time, she signed up knowing the risk, choosing to take a stand in a way that she hoped would spotlight what she sees as an unjust situation for female athletes.

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“So what I was doing already was just avoiding tournaments where I knew there was a transgender fencer. But at this point, what else should I do? Should I just not sign up for any tournaments? I have no other options,” Turner told the Daily Mail.

During the match, Turner knelt on the strip and addressed the referee: “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,” she later recalled in an interview with Fox News.

Sullivan, a 20-year-old sophomore on Wagner College’s women’s fencing team, approached Turner during the moment of protest, unaware of what was happening.

“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,” Turner said. “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.’”

Though Turner did not use Sullivan’s preferred she/her pronouns during the interview, she emphasized that her protest was not personal but rather a statement against what she views as systemic unfairness within the sport and beyond.

Her concerns, she says, are rooted in fear — fear of retaliation, biased officiating, and social ostracization.

“There are a lot of people who are for this [trans athletes in women’s sports] who are referees. I would lose favor within the sight of referees and I could end up with a biased bout. I could lose friends who I don’t know what their position is on this,” she explained.

Turner admits she had considered raising her concerns directly to USA Fencing officials but ultimately refrained. “I was like, I don’t even want to reach out because if I do, then I won’t ever have a fair bout in my life.”

USA Fencing allows transgender athletes to compete in female events if they have completed one year of testosterone suppression treatment and provide proof of ongoing hormone therapy.

Sullivan, who placed 24th in the event, met those eligibility requirements.

While the tournament was not NCAA-sanctioned, the incident has sparked national conversations — not just about athletic fairness, but also about political realignment.

Turner, who identifies as a longtime Democrat, says the issue compelled her to vote for former President Donald Trump in the last election. She cited his pledge to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports as a decisive factor.

“This movement shouldn’t be political, but I do find there is one party that has been totally captured by radical politics, radical social politics that have acted as sort of a litmus test to let me know whether a politician is willing to lie just to advance their own political career,” she said.

“That just opened the door for me to start listening more to the other side, really. Because if you’re willing to lie to me and tell me that a man can become a woman, then I wonder what else could you be lying to me about?”

Turner’s act of defiance may have cost her a tournament — and perhaps even a place in the sport’s future — but she says she is willing to face the consequences to speak out for what she believes is right.

Her protest has stirred strong reactions on both sides of the issue, and while USA Fencing has reiterated its commitment to international guidelines and inclusion, the questions raised by Turner’s stand are likely to persist in locker rooms, boardrooms, and public discourse for some time to come.

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