VIDEO: Female Fencer Boot­ed From Tour­na­ment After Refus­ing To Com­pete Against Male Oppo­nent

A female fencer was dis­qual­i­fied from a tour­na­ment in Mary­land this past week­end after she took a knee and refused to com­pete against a trans­gen­der-iden­ti­fy­ing male oppo­nent.

Red­mond Sul­li­van, who is male and iden­ti­fies as trans­gen­der, was allowed to par­tic­i­pate in the female tour­na­ment per USA Fenc­ing rules, the orga­ni­za­tion con­firmed to The Dai­ly Wire. Sul­li­van for­mer­ly com­pet­ed with males, and quick­ly won the top prize at Con­necti­cut Divi­sion Junior Olympic Qual­i­fiers last year after switch­ing to female fenc­ing, accord­ing to the Dai­ly Mail.

Sullivan’s female oppo­nent, a young woman from the Fenc­ing Acad­e­my of Philadel­phia, refused to com­pete against the male and was pre­sent­ed with a black card, mean­ing she was dis­qual­i­fied from the entire event, a source relayed to The Dai­ly Wire and USA Fenc­ing con­firmed.

The Dai­ly Wire asked Bryan Wen­dell, the direc­tor of com­mu­ni­ca­tions for USA Fenc­ing, why the female fencer, who’s been iden­ti­fied as Stephanie Turn­er, was not mere­ly pre­sent­ed with a loss for the for­feit­ed bout, but instead kicked out of the tour­na­ment.

“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 rules clear­ly pro­hib­it,” Wen­dell said. “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.”

Wendell’s email sig­na­ture includes “Pro­nouns: He, Him, His.”

Pro-female X account ICONS obtained video of the protest and dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion and post­ed it online Wednes­day:

His­toric Protest: Female Fencer Takes a Knee in Bout Against Male Oppo­nent, Faces Imme­di­ate Dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion

After receiv­ing a black card for refus­ing to com­pete against a man, Red­mond Sullivan’s female oppo­nent was expelled from the @USAFencing event at the Univ. of… pic.twitter.com/IloSnrb2Iu

— ICONS (@icons_women) April 2, 2025

USA Fenc­ing also sent the fol­low­ing email to The Dai­ly Wire con­cern­ing their rules for trans-iden­ti­fy­ing ath­letes:

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 & 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.

Relat­ed: I Was Injured By A Trans Ath­lete. State Leg­is­la­tures Need To Do More To Pro­tect Women’s Sports