A female fencer who was disqualified from a tournament after refusing to compete against a transgender opponent has been invited to testify before Congress — alongside the chairman of USA Fencing who has backed “trans inclusion” in the sport.
Stephanie Turner, 31, took a knee instead of fencing against Redmond Sullivan, a 20-year-old who was born biologically male, at USA Fencing’s Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland on March 30.
Now Turner is being invited before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) to answer questions about the incident — and USA Fencing board chair Damien Lehfeldt has also been invited to attend.
Lehfeldt, in an August 2023 blog post, claimed that “transgender women are women and gender is not sex” as USA Fencing began allowing transgender athletes to compete in the women’s category after completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.
The chair also opposed separate athletic divisions for trans athletes since that would be “antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.”
“Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply with the competition guidelines and regulations outlined by USA Fencing and the IOC — even if the science those [sic] IOC guidelines might be imperfect,” Lehfeldt wrote.
“There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning. There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint.”
He added: “Giving athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.”
The hearing is scheduled for May 7.
“Women’s sports are for women only. Radical leftists pushing to let biological men compete against women are destroying fair competition and putting female athletes in physical danger,” said DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“Stephanie Turner had the courage to call out this insanity, and she’s a hero to women across America. USA Fencing must be held accountable for demeaning women and denying them of the chance to succeed in their own sport. It is out of compliance with President Trump’s executive order and it should not be recognized as the National Governing Body for fencing if it continues to defy the law.”
Turner told The Post that she conceded the match “for my own physical safety.”
“Men do fence a lot harder than women and I don’t want to get hurt,” she said, adding that when she first started in the sport, “this was unfathomable.”
“It makes me very angry to see that we’re going along with somebody else’s fantasy.”
USA Fencing claimed in a statement that Turner was disqualified for refusing to compete rather than her protest.
“USA Fencing remains committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community for everyone in our sport. We believe in the principle of creating safe communities where all athletes, and community members, have a place,” the statement read.
“While we understand there are a range of perspectives, USA Fencing will continue to engage in respectful, research-based dialogue and review as policy evolves in the Olympic and Paralympic movement as well as domestic law, hate speech of any kind is not acceptable — online or in person. Let’s keep the conversation respectful and the strip welcoming to all.”
Three years ago, USA Fencing adopted a policy giving preference when selecting host cities for national tournaments to locations without laws that “harm members of LGBTQ communities” — and later released a list of states that it intended to “avoid where possible” when hosting major events.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Department of Education is investigating the incident to see if USA Fencing is violating Title IX by refusing to comply with an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
“USA Fencing will respond and cooperate to any inquiry as required by law,” the organization said in a statement responding to the investigation.
Last week, Turner was highlighted as a “Courage Wins Champion” by XX-XY Athletics — a brand that advocates for women — for having “stood her ground to fight for women’s sports.”
“She’s a hero,” XX-XY founder and CEO Jennifer Sey said of the fencer.
