Women's fencer who knelt in protest of trans athlete reacts to USA Fencing reversal of controversial policies
EXCLUSIVE: More than two months have passed since women's fencer Stephanie Turner went viral after being punished by USA Fencing for kneeling in protest of a trans opponent.
And after nine weeks of immense public and federal scrutiny against USA Fencing in the aftermath of the incident, the organization amended two of its most controversial policies last weekend.
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The organization's board of directors changed its rule to de-prioritized states with laws deemed "harmful" to the LGBTQ population and a rule that did not guarantee the national anthem be played before every event.
Turner reacted to USA Fencing's recent policy changes in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.
"USA Fencing has fallen into the hands of unpatriotic tyrants who put obscure politics ahead of promoting the sport across the country. Whether to play the national anthem or not should have never been in question. And excluding states from the national tournament selection process because of their abortion and LGBT policies is ludicrous and has nothing to do with fencing," Turner said.
"It makes me wonder if these policies were put into place to punish conservatives and red states. There needs to be a shakeup in USA Fencing’s leadership and an audit of their social media and online platforms."
Turner stepped away from competing in USA Fencing after receiving a 12-month probation for refusing to face trans athlete Redmond Sullivan at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland in late March.
But the fallout of the controversy had an impact on the organization and its policies right away.
USA Fencing announced in late April that it is preparing to change its gender-eligibility policy. The proposed updated policy ensures that the women's category "will be open exclusively to athletes of the female sex." The men's category "will be open to all other athletes who are otherwise eligible for competition."
However, that new policy has not been officially put in place.
The incident involving Turner also prompted a Title IX investigation by President Donald Trump's administration and a congressional hearing in May.
USA Fencing Chair Damien Lehfeldt was grilled by Republican lawmakers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee's "Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" hearing on May 7.
After the hearing, Turner told Fox News Digital that she would devote herself and her platform to pushing for resignations among key leadership figures in USA Fencing.
"I'm going to be pushing for people to resign, to be honest. I'd like to see some people resign for the comments that they've made, especially publicly, ones that are harassing and meant to humiliate concerned women, mothers and daughters," Turner said.
The organization's policy of prioritizing states with pro-LGBTQ laws was a particular point of scrutiny during the hearing by DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
"In selecting sites for its national fencing events, for instance, the board policy is to avoid states whose laws and policies on LGBTQ rights and abortion it opposes. It uses ‘Equality Maps’ to determine which states to blacklist from its competitions, and which to favor," Greene said. "This ends up favoring a lot of blue states and harming a lot of red ones. So, it creates politically determined winners and losers — but it has absolutely nothing to do with fencing."
The previous host site policy placed a number of states on the "do not allow" list were Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
The states on its "avoid where possible" list included Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
The organization now claims it will have events in several of those states over the next year.
"We merged several overlapping documents into one policy that scores every bid — regardless of state — on cost, safety, and travel convenience. Using this rubric, next season’s national events will span nine states including Texas, Missouri, Florida, Utah, Ohio, Virginia, Oregon, Tennessee and Nevada," read a statement to Fox News Digital.
USA Fencing has also provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the new anthem policy.
"The anthem has always been played at the start of every national tournament. The Board simply wrote that long‑standing practice into policy and added that it will also be played on any U.S. holiday that occurs during an event, such as Independence Day, which falls during our upcoming Summer Nationals," the statement read.
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