Rethinking The Woman Fencer And The Trans Guy

When I first posted about this on Thursday, I looked at the available links, did what I could to read between the lines, and surmised, I think correctly, that women’s fencer Stephanie Turner had already gamed out her potential encounter with the trans male, to the extent of having a friend on hand to videotape it. But I still had the feeling I was missing something. In my post, I cited a link that quoted Ms Turner saying she'd already protested men posing as women fencers on other occasions.

But what about USA Fencing? What did they have planned in advance of the event? In my post, I had another link quoting Ms Turner saying, "I was not aware Mr. Sullivan was registered until the night before the tournament." I begsn to wonder if the whole encounter was in fact set up by USA Fencing, and Ms Turner was simply planning a response to a scenario that had already been planned -- to wit, she would encounter Mr Sullivan and either compete or be forced to concede -- and everyone on the USA Fencing side, Sullivan and the referee, already knew his lines as well.

Turner had deliberately avoided competing at tournaments where there would be an athlete she believed was transgender, she told Fox News. But in this case, she registered before her opponent.

After taking a knee, Turner’s opponent approached her, thinking she might be hurt, according to Turner and the video. The two then talked for a few seconds as a judge stepped out of the frame. While the competitors’ conversation cannot be heard clearly in the video, Turner said her opponent told her she had a right to compete.

“There is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get black-carded,” Turner recalls her opponent said.

. . . Turner was disqualified from the day’s tournament because of her refusal to participate in the bout and “not related to any personal statement,” USA Fencing said. “A fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions.”

I'm starting to get the feeling that the whole situation was a setup. USA Fencing apparently anticipated that Turner, known for her opposition to trans men fencing women, wouldn't show up to the tournament, even thnough she'd registered, if she knew Sullivan was registered -- so USA Fencing had him register at the last minute, when they were sure Turner had already done so and would show up. (My guess is that somebody on the inside warned Turner this had happened, and Turner had the chance to get ready, calling her friend with the video camera.)

What feeds my suspicion is this link at Breitbart, which carries this post at X:

🤺Damien Lehfeldt, Chair of USA Fencing, has used his own social media to humiliate women who dare advocate for a sex-based category in women's fencing.

This private email exchange is one he shared to his IG when a woman wrote him in defense of female fencers after this article… https://t.co/QszxomnqZX pic.twitter.com/lUQVPQyYQa

— ICONS (@icons_women) April 3, 2025

The link contimues,

According to Reduxx, Lehfelt previously said “transgender women are women” when he posted an article to his blog, The Fencing Coach, and even told women to believe that giving male “athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.”

The problem was that Turner had apparently been tipped off that Sullivan would be there, and she was ready with her own lines and a friend with a camera. And let's face it, she was savvy. The Cherry Blossom fencing tournamemnt took place on March 28-29. The encounter between Turner, Sullivan, and the referee that was recorded on videotape presumably took place at that time. However, the episode didn't hit CNN until April 4. Once that happened, there was apparently a quiet panic:

According to Fox News, Wagner College confirmed that Redmond Sullivan exited the [women's fencing] team more than a week following the viral controversy at the Cherry Blossom Open.

“Sullivan is shown to have competed for the Wagner women’s team in the foil competition in several meets during the first half of the 2024-25 season. Sullivan participated on the men’s team during the 2023-24 season, scoresheets from meets during the season showed,” Fox News reported.

Wagner College seems to have sensed the implications even before the Deparment of Education made them plain:

The Department of Education’s (DOE) newly formed Title IX team is launching an investigation into a USA Fencing incident after a female fencer was disqualified for refusing to compete against a transgender-identifying male.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced the investigation during an interview on Fox News’s Faulkner Focus, the outlet reported.

. . . Department of Education spokeswoman Julie Hartman told the outlet that the University of Maryland [bears] “responsibility” for the incident because it hosted the event. She said Wagner College is also responsible because it previously rostered a transgender-identifying fencer.

“The nation watched as a female competitor bravely took a knee and forfeited an inherently unfair fencing match after discovering that her opponent was a male. No woman should have to recuse herself from a match that she trained diligently for because she fears for her safety. As a tournament host, University of Maryland has a responsibility to follow Title IX by not allowing males to compete in female competitions and occupy female-only intimate facilities,” Hartman told the outlet.

“Similarly, Wagner College has a responsibility to not allow males on female rosters. Unlike the Biden administration, which weaponized Title IX contrary to its meaning to deny female athletes their civil rights, the Trump Administration’s Department of Education and the Department of Justice’s Title IX Special Investigations Team will not allow recipients of federal funding to deny women’s equal opportunity protections under the law.”

During my brief academic career, one basic thing I learned was that administrators fear two things, although they're also scared of a great many others: losing federal funds and controversy. I suspect that the University of Maryland has also been quietly speaking with USA Fencing, which goes along with the other inquiries from Texas Attorney General Paxton and Senator Cruz. I would also suspect that USA Fencing's board of directors has also been quietly chatting with Damien Lehfeldt, its chair, whose term expires this year in any case.

As far as I can see, Ms Turner had a record of protesting trans men in fencing, USA Fencing tried to set her up in this encounter, she was a step ahead of them with a friend and a camera, and she was savvy with media as well. USA Fencing was completely outmaneuvered and now risks its relationships with the universities that host its functions.