USA Fencing has acknowledged a forthcoming federal investigation into an incident that occurred at one in every of its occasions the place a ladies’s fencer was punished for refusing to face a transgender competitor.
The investigation, which shall be carried out by the newly-formed Title IX investigations workforce along side the US Division of Schooling and Division of Justice, was introduced on Friday by Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon.
The incident, which occurred on the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland on March 30, noticed feminine fencer Stephanie Turner take a knee in protest of trans competitor Redmond Sullivan.
Turner was then disqualified from the occasion and escorted out of the venue.
USA Fencing supplied an announcement to Fox Information Digital saying it is going to cooperate with the investigation.
“USA Fencing will reply and cooperate to any inquiry as required by legislation,” the assertion learn.
The incident involving Turner shortly drew nationwide consideration after a video of her taking a knee to protest Sullivan went viral.
The footage ignited widespread consciousness and backlash towards USA Fencing’s gender eligibility insurance policies.
Turner advised Fox Information Digital that she got here to the choice to take the knee the evening earlier than the occasion, when she checked the competitors swimming pools and noticed that she can be competing towards Sullivan.
“I noticed that I used to be going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I mentioned, ‘OK, let’s do it. I’m going to take the knee,’” Turner mentioned. “I knew what I needed to do as a result of USA Fencing had not been listening to ladies’s objections concerning [its gender eligibility policy].”
USA Fencing first enacted its present trans-inclusion coverage in 2023.
It permits transgender athletes to compete within the ladies’s class at each the junior and senior stage after finishing one calendar yr of testosterone suppression therapy.
Proof of compliant hormone remedy should be supplied previous to competitors, however the group has taken even additional steps to prioritize its trans rivals.
In November 2022, it introduced a coverage 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.”
That coverage went into impact within the 2023 season, the identical yr it modified its gender coverage. It later launched a listing of states that it supposed to “keep away from the place attainable” and the states that it flat out wouldn’t permit internet hosting main occasions.
This previous December, a nonprofit fencing group, the Honest Fencing Group, penned an open letter to USA Fencing Board Members urging the re-evaluation of its stance on a number of points, together with transgender inclusion.
Simply days later, nonetheless, board members voted towards a number of motions to approve an all-female job power to re-evaluate and revise the present transgender coverage, in an 8-3 vote.
Now, after siding towards ladies fencers searching for safety from trans inclusion, USA Fencing faces potential federal sanctions.
This Title IX investigation shall be one of many first missions for the newly fashioned Title IX investigations workforce, which was formally fashioned final week.
The initiative was introduced final Friday with the mission to “shield feminine athletes, from the pernicious results of gender ideology in class applications and actions.”
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