Female Fencer Takes a Knee and Refuses to Fight Transgender Opponent as She Tells Ref: “I Will Not Fence Against a Man”
A female fencer was disqualified from her tournament after taking a knee and refusing to compete against a transgender opponent, telling the referee: “I will not fence against a man.” The Mail has more.
USA fencer Stephanie Turner was scheduled to face Redmond Sullivan at the Cherry Blossom tournament held at the University of Maryland.
However, as the match was about to begin, Turner took a knee and removed her mask in a protest during the Division 1A Women’s Foil event.
She was subsequently shown a black card which signifies that a player is immediately excluded from the competition and suspended for the remainder of it.
Turner had completed four matches before facing Sullivan, who eventually placed 24th out of 39 in the competition.
Speaking about her decision, Turner said: “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’.
“I knew what I had to do because USA Fencing had not been listening to women’s objections. I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond [Sullivan] 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 okay?’ And I said: ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.'”
However, shortly afterwards, USA Fencing produced a statement in support of Sullivan and transgender participation in the sport.
The statement read: “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.
“We understand that the conversation on equity and inclusion pertaining to transgender participation in sport is evolving. USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion, and we’re committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic and Paralympic movement.
“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.
“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 [International Fencing Federation] rules clearly prohibit.
“USA Fencing is obligated to follow the letter of those rules and ensure that participants respect the standards set at the international level. We remain committed to inclusivity within our sport while also upholding every requirement dictated by our governing body.”
Worth reading in full.
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Seemed graceful on her part, love and respect is fine in the circumstances. It’s the USFencing people we should be concerned about, always favouring the mentally ill. I prefer sharp weapons and mentally impaired people to be kept well apart, for everyone’s sake including their own
Your comment made me laugh. I could just imagine Cardinal Richelieu’s guards running down the street, brandishing their swords to attack The Three Musketeers, who were all standing there shouting at them “Je t’aime! Je t’aime!”
🙂
Well done Stephanie Turner.
Shame on the American Fencing Association.
I thought Trump was putting a stop to all this unfair nonsense…
With a bit of luck, this will become a federal test case against all sporting federations and governing bodies
Two sexes says Trump, now prove your statment!
Here’s a clearer look at him and a better comparison. Also, I think it’s beyond absurd that Martina Navratilova is banging on about this with her righteous outrage on Twitter but she’s a massive Demtard. How does that work, exactly? It’s the Dems that were enabling all of this gender crapola and Trump is meant to be putting a stop to it and keeping female sports exclusively female but the woman couldn’t be more anti-Trump if she tried. She keeps calling him ”fascist” and she’s apparently ”pro-America”, which is, er….why she votes Democrat! Reminds me of the feminists that are basically just walking contradictions;
”One of these people is the man, who destroyed Stephanie Turner’s fencing career, just so he could cheat against women. The problem is: it’s impossible to tell which one, because there’s literally no difference or physical advantage.”
https://x.com/CrunchAlias/status/1907722741202980896
Bloody hell!
Just about sums it up!
Absolutely hear hear👏
But why did she “take the knee”? Is that normal practice in fencing, or is it a “Black Lives Matter More Than White Lives” homage to the career criminal Saint George Floyd? Then she assured her male-fake-female opponent that she loved and respected him. Why? May I just compare this with another news item from the US today, in which the victim’s Cowardly Christian father immediately declared that he had “forgiven” the man who stabbed one of his 16year old twin sons in the heart at a sports match for nothing… Texas Teen Dead After Being Stabbed In Heart At High School Track Meet This is extremely relevant at this time of year coming up to Easter, when IDIOT CHRISTIANS often show that they’ve never bothered to read what Jesus actually said in the Bible. He did NOT tell his disciples to forgive everyone immediately for every kind of heinous atrocity!!! He said to forgive them ONLY IF THEY TRULY REPENT THEIR CRIME, which real criminals never do. They may “confess” their crime, in fact boasting about it, gloating over it, secretly smiling with “Duping Delight”, but NEVER REPENTING IT. Without true repentance, there can be NO FORGIVENESS, and NO… Read more »
I think she took the knee to show her respect for her opponent
She has nothing against the individual but strongly disagrees with the US fencing association for allowing this in the first place, fair play to her👌
Exactly.
But isn’t she an Ethnic African? Your view would be valid if kneeling were a normal tradition of conceding defeat in fencing, but I’ve never heard of such a thing. Maybe it is, but if it isn’t, and she specifically said she would “take the knee”, that term only applies to BLM Marxist Whingers.
What is the traditional gesture for fencers to concede defeat to their opponent?
And how the blazes can anyone show respect for an opponent who cheats, by pretending to be a woman so he can win more easily and make more money than he ever could fighting his fellow males?
Strangely this description is from the bbc explaining the history of the act of taking the knee and it certainly isn’t a new action or a racially based one
Taking the knee has become a widespread global gesture against racism but academics now say its origins date back to the Mesopotamian era.
Researchers have been studying the history of the gesture following protests for racial equality since the death of George Floyd in 2020.
The University of Hull’s Dr Nick Evans said taking the knee thousands of years ago was “a sign of deference”.
Well of course it’s been a sign of deference for millennia, but it wasn’t called “Taking the Knee” until the Marxist movement called Black Lives Matter But White Lives Don’t.
I’m still wondering what the traditional gesture is in fencing for conceding defeat to your opponent, which she should have made, instead of making a modern political gesture.
Surely she should have something against the individual? He chose to enter a women’s competition; he chooses to conflate his desire to adopt the gender of female with the biology of female, and then demand that he has access to all the protected rights and spaces of a biological female. It’s his choices that are creating the conditions by with various associated make these bad decisions. He’s a prat!
Well said, especially your succinct summary: “He’s a prat!”
It is difficult enough to get women into weapons-based martial arts. You shouldn’t be making it worse by making competition impossible in this way. This is some sick crap. As if a man beating a woman would ever mean anything other than he could never beat a man. Weapons training is a man’s domain so it is the responsibility of men to try to encourage women into it not bloody deter them.
I don’t think women should get into weapons-based martial arts, or bullfighting, or fighting on the front line in the army. Why should they even want to compete with men at things in which men naturally excel?
Women have made a huge mistake in forcing men to do things at which women excel, like making them change nappies and entertain babies & toddlers for hours, and all the other nurturing things women do best.
…cue RPGs and pitchforks…………. 🙂 Mogwai must be having a nap after finishing the ironing?
Ha-ha-ha! Nice one. So funny! 🙂
Who downvoted?
Must have been Mogwai waking up…
or one of her fellow rabid feminists.
I suppose you’ll have some evidence to support your claim that I’m a ‘feminist’? Mind, I’m still waiting on your evidence that I’m a Jewish Mossad agent who has access to all of DS account-holders’ private information, English is not my first language and me living in the Netherlands is pure fabrication and part of my cover story.🤷♀️ So what does that tell me about you?
‘Mysogynists are weak men who feel threatened by women’, my hypothesis that is constantly supported on here and yet to be refuted.
When you have an over-reliance on lies to slander and misrepresent someone you’re targeting, in order to garner support from other posters and generally shit-stir, as well as a preoccupation with making derogatory remarks about the opposite sex on the regular, I think that tells me all I need to know about you as a person.
But, hey. You’ve evidently got the support and encouragement of your pal, the moderator, so it’s all good, right? So as you were.👍
Your words remind me of the excellent description of Priti Patel by her own Jewish husband Alex Sawyer, who called her “My Personal Piranha”.
Oh look, the moderator and my number one hater, chatting shit about me. Thanks for confirming what I already suspected about you, HL. Explains a lot. 😏 But don’t forget to edit the word ‘shit’, whatever you do. Standards, and all…
Oops, forgot to point something out, given that you seemingly deal in stereotypes. We don’t iron in my house. We don’t even own one. Just to correct you on that detail.
It was meant as a bit of harmless fun..please take it as such, and enjoy the lovely sunny day about to dawn upon us. We really do appreciate all of your comments
If you supposedy see everything that goes on in this place then you’ll be well aware of the targeted harassment, largely based on lies and slander, from the very hater you’re engaging with. Why would you wish to encourage him further in his obvious obsession with me? Not “a bit of harmless fun” at all, just very ill-judged, unprofessional behaviour on your part. You are basically giving positive feedback, therefore encouraging, a fantasist stalker. As a moderator you should remain impartial, but instead you initiate conflict and give carte blanche to a very toxic, unhinged individual to carry on with his targeted campaign. It’s very obvious where your loyalties lie. As if I need anymore opposition/haters on my case in this place.
Listen to yourself— you sound positively demonic.
Agree 100%. It was meant as a bit of harmless fun.
Encouraging the less polite contributers on DS is not in the best interests of subscribers generally. In my opinion. The commentary generally is well mannered and self-policing and it would be wonderful to keep things that way. Slanging matches are the preserve of Guido’s site and preferably should be left that way.
You need to carefully read Mogwai’s comments before talking about “less polite contributors”. You should be addressing your own exact words to her, rather than DS.
“Oh stop your endless whinging!” “HYPOCRITE!!!” 🤣
🤡
I think weapons training has great benefits outside of practical application. For example it hones your sense of distance way beyond unarmed combat simply because a blade can be very thin and if you move out of the way of a blade then it should be by the smallest distance possible. I think weapons training is beneficial for everybody because it puts you back in touch with the best of your human faculties.
Well, you may be right, for it is true that in China, every female college or university student has mandatory basic military training along with the males, before they are allowed to start their first uni classes, so they all know how to load and shoot a rifle, even while lying on the ground. That seems a very useful thing we should be teaching Indigenous British women and girls, along with sharp pointy things, as you recommend. If only for self-defence against all the Third World criminals, instead of being helpless.
Absolutely people think twice when they are confronted with a weapons-based culture. If you turned up in Japan fice hundred years ago would you take on some master ronin? I doubt it.
That’s why it’s fantastic that Rupert Lowe and historian David Starkey specifically credit the UK 1689 Bill of Rights with such importance. The US 2nd Amendment is taken directly from that 1689 Bill of Rights, with one crucial difference: the UK one gives PROTESTANTS THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS for self-defence, because of the previous armed Catholic massacres of unarmed Protestants. We were once a weapons-based nation, as were our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.
In fact, that’s where the custom of raising your hand to speak in class or an assembly, or to vote, comes from: the Anglo-Saxon men were required to raise their arms, brandishing their weapons in the air, to signal their assent to any proposal in a tribal meeting.
No Weapon, No Vote!
Communists and Third World Invaders today think twice before attacking well-armed American citizens, in contrast to the now helplessly disarmed Britons and Europeans in general. That’s why Communists keep trying to take away the American Right to Bear Arms.
Sorry, it wasn’t the UK 1689 Bill of Rights, but the 1689 ENGLISH Bill of Rights.
The Act of Union between Scotland and England wasn’t until 1707.
I wanna hug this woman. And something tells me that she wouldn’t mind at all and wouldn’t see it as an attack, only a show of solidarity.
More of this brave, common sense, please.
Three cheers for Stephanie Turner!
There is no getting out of this without getting your hands dirty. If you haven’t got the stomach or balls for it then just accept that. There is no guarantee of victory far more likely is complete defeat. Can you fight within that framework? You probably can’t especially if you have had it easy before. There are still some fighting men in this country just stay out of their way. Yout stupis ass acquiescence has done enough damage already. You twats wanted to put the unvaccinated into concentration camps. I don’t forget things like that.
I don’t remember anything like that happening here in Britain. Not sure about Australia.
There were reports of that in the States, with FEMA camps, but they were false.
USA fencing will regret their decision once president trump learns of this travesty.
So, in American Female Fencing tournaments, real women are excluded in order to include men.
The rest of the Female competitors should also down rapiers.