Ladies’s fencer Stephanie Turner turned a family title in a single day amongst activists for girls’s rights in sports activities.
A viral video of Turner kneeling to protest a transgender opponent ignited extra debate about transgender inclusion in ladies’s sports activities, particularly fencing.
“It should in all probability, not less than for the second, destroy my life,” Turner informed Fox Information Digital. “It’s extremely laborious for me to do that.”
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Her determination was pushed by her opposition to competing towards organic males.
“It is a severe concern that’s occurring inside all sports activities, and it must be addressed. There’s a distinction between women and men,” Turner mentioned. “It’s a civil rights motion for girls and women, and I prioritize the security and rights and safety of ladies and women over trans-identified males.”
Her perception even overpowered her lifelong political allegiance.
Turner, a long-time registered Democrat who broke from the social gathering for the latest election, says she is now a “new Republican conservative.”
She switched events over the problem of transgender athletes in ladies’s and women sports activities.
“A small group of individuals is holding a a lot bigger athlete base hostage to extremist liberal views,” Turner mentioned.
How did it get up to now?
She comes from a liberal background
Fencer Stephanie Turner kneels in entrance of a USA Fencing official. (Courtesy of Icons)
Turner was born and raised in Washington D.C., and now lives in deep blue Montgomery County, Maryland.
Through the years, she’s been concerned in an in depth buddy group, which incorporates different fencers. It additionally consists of a number of members of the LGBT group.
“They didn’t know I had this opinion about transgender ladies in ladies’s sports activities. And one in every of them was one in every of my actually good mates on the [fencing] membership. He is within the LGBT group, and loads of my mates are additionally within the LGBT group. And I do not need them to be mad at me for this. I really like them on a private degree.
“I do not need them to suppose that I one way or the other hate them. And I do not need to lose them as mates.”
However Turner additionally feels she will’t have legit discussions with some folks in regards to the concern.
“They lie and say that estrogen could make a person a lady additionally to the purpose the place you can’t inform the distinction, and it simply turns into an insane argument.”
She began fencing in faculty and step by step averted trans rivals
Turner, 31, ventured into aggressive fencing 12 years in the past at age 19. She joined the membership on the College of Maryland and has caught with it ever since. She later certified to compete in USA Fencing.
“I commit loads of money and time for this,” Turner mentioned, citing journey, tools and registration bills.
Turner’s official Fencing Tracker web page exhibits 21 podium finishes, together with a gold medal in ladies’s foil at an occasion known as the Trick or Retreat ROC Aug. 18 in Edison, New Jersey.
Stephanie Turner (Courtesy of Sophie Turner; Patrick Smith/Getty Photos)
However she bought to some extent in her profession when she had to concentrate on the USA Fencing official gender eligibility coverage.
The official coverage permits for transgenders to compete within the ladies’s class in each the junior and senior degree after finishing one calendar yr of testosterone suppression remedy. Proof of compliant hormone remedy should be supplied previous to competitors.
TRANSGENDER FEMALE FENCER SCORES WORLD TITLE OVER 14-TIME CHAMPION
USA Fencing has a coverage introduced in November 2022 to provide choice when choosing host cities for nationwide tournaments to states with out legal guidelines that “hurt members of LGBTQ communities” and states that don’t “have legal guidelines undermining the reproductive well being of ladies.”
“In fencing, personally, I see it very often,” Turner mentioned. “I’ve witnessed transgender fencers in ladies’s tournaments and women tournaments in several age classes, particularly Y-14 (the youngest age group).”
Turner had a earlier expertise avoiding a trans opponent in the summertime of 2013. She noticed studies of a trans athlete who she had beforehand often known as a organic male fencer, by one other title. When Turner noticed the athlete was listed as a competitor in that yr’s Summer season Nationals, she determined to not go.
“I by no means registered as a result of I knew that he was going to be in there,” Turner mentioned. “In earlier years, once I had recognized about transgender fencers being current, I simply did not register.”
She ended up dealing with a trans athlete final weekend and determined to do one thing totally different
Turner at all times made certain to keep away from registering for occasions after vetting them for trans athletes.
However what she could not foresee was one in every of them registering after she did.
That occurred for the primary time final weekend for a Division I-A occasion known as the Cherry Blossom Open at her alma mater, the College of Maryland. Redmond Sullivan, who beforehand competed within the males’s division, based on Fencing Tracker, was registered and positioned in the identical bracket as Turner.
She solely realized this at 10:30 p.m. the evening earlier than her matchup with Sullivan.
By that time, she was contemplating a special method to dealing with the scenario contemplating how frequent trans inclusion was changing into.
“I had contemplated sooner or later that I needed to keep away from not registering for occasions, simply because a transgender particular person was there, as a result of it might simply be each single one in every of my occasions has a transgender particular person,” Turner mentioned.
“So, I used to be like, ‘ what, I’m simply going to provide it to God. If this particular person exhibits up into my occasion, and so they’re on my strip, then I’ll take a knee, and that might be God’s will.”
However Turner needed to take issues a step additional, a step she knew might “destroy her life,” however she did it anyway.
Simply minutes earlier than she took the strip to kneel towards Sullivan, she went to one in every of her closest mates on the membership for a favor.
“I mentioned, ‘I’m about to do one thing, and I need you to movie it. I am actually nervous about it, and that is your final probability to go away if you wish to,’ as a result of I did not know what the response was going to be,” Turner mentioned.
Her buddy agreed to movie the kneel, recording a scene that might be witnessed throughout the fencing world.
Turner was then dealt a black card, disqualified from the occasion and escorted out so shortly she did not get to say one other phrase to her teammates, trainers or anybody else.
Turner’s kneel has ignited world conversations and even a industrial
Turner did not need this position. She admits to being a personal particular person with none social media channels who “enjoys anonymity.”
“I hoped another person would come ahead or the board of administrators would have a change of coronary heart,” Turner mentioned.
A nonprofit fencing group penned an open letter to USA Fencing Board Members in December, urging the nationwide governing physique for the game to reevaluate its stance on a number of points, together with transgender inclusion.
“Politics apart, it’s a affordable request to type a job drive to do a deeper dive on this concern in fencing and create a secure area the place the voices of all ladies are heard with out ridicule and abuse,” the letter mentioned.
However nothing was completed.
Turner is the newest combatant within the ongoing tradition battle over the problem of trans athletes in ladies’s sports activities. She has completed a televised interview on Fox Information Channel, her story has been coated by a number of media retailers and she or he is even featured in a industrial.
The sports activities activist model XX-XY Athletics launched its new industrial that includes the clip of Turner’s kneel Thursday.
For her, it is all value it if it means holding establishments like USA Fencing and politicians who’ve continued to allow trans inclusion accountable.
“It is a litmus check for widespread sense in whether or not a politician is ready to deceive your face to abide to widespread tradition,” Turner mentioned.
“One thing must be completed.”
USA Fencing supplied an announcement to Fox Information Digital addressing the incident.
“USA Fencing enacted our present transgender and nonbinary athlete coverage in 2023. The coverage was designed to broaden entry to the game of fencing and create inclusive, secure areas. The coverage is predicated on the precept that everybody ought to have the power to take part in sports activities and was primarily based upon the analysis out there of the day,” the assertion mentioned.
“We respect the viewpoints on all sides and encourage our members to proceed sharing them with us because the matter evolves. It is necessary for the fencing group to interact on this dialogue, however we anticipate this dialog to be carried out respectfully, whether or not at our tournaments or in on-line areas. The best way to progress is by respectful dialogue primarily based in proof.”
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A USA Fencing spokesperson additionally informed Fox Information Digital Turner was not penalized for her stance towards trans inclusion, however merely for refusing to fence.
“Within the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification was not associated to any private assertion however was merely the direct results of her determination to say no to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE guidelines clearly prohibit,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“In response to the FIE (Worldwide Fencing Federation) Technical Guidelines, particularly Article t.113, a fencer shouldn’t be permitted to refuse to fence one other correctly entered fencer for any cause. Below these guidelines, such a refusal leads to disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This coverage exists to take care of truthful competitors requirements and protect the game’s integrity.”
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