Female fencer disqualified after declining to fight trans opponent feared for career and personal life before viral protest

The female fencer who was disqualified from a tournament for refusing to fight a trans opponent ripped into the culture of the sport that has made her fear similar situations for several years.Stephanie Turner’s viral protest at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland garnered her a platform to showcase the “unfair” situations she faced if she refused to compete against other transgender competitors.The 31-year-old kneeled on the fencing strip, or piste, before she ever launched an attack against Redmond Sullivan during their bout at the University of Maryland in College Park on March 30.Turner claimed she usually doesn’t sign up for events where she knows there’s a chance at going against a transgender opponent, but did so this time as she, coming up with the idea to protest.“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.Turner, who competes out of the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, has stopped herself from raising her concerns to USA Fencing officials out of fear they would personally disagree with her and ruin her career.“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,” Turner said.She revealed the inside appearance of the fencing world where many members don’t share the same views as her in the name of female sports.“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 added.Turner’s protest at the Cherry Blossom Open earned her a black card, the sport’s highest form of penalty – an automatic expulsion from the tournament.The black card was attributed to her refusal to co...