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.
“We have a special Title IX investigations team that is going to be investigating anyone who was associated with this to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen,” McMahon said. “The president has made crystal clear that he is not going to tolerate men being able to compete in women’s sports, he signed an executive order, and we’re upholding Title IX. For those who violate these provisions, we will investigate you and take action.”
As Breitbart News reported last week, women’s fencer Stephanie Turner refused a match against a transgender-identifying opponent at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland, opting to take a knee instead. When Turner learned that she would be facing off against male fencer Redmond Sullivan, she wanted her protest to be caught on video and decided to take a knee just before the match began. She later told Fox News that USA Fencing has failed to listen to women’s views on trans athletes participating in their sport.
“I knew what I had to do because USA Fencing had not been listening to women’s objections regarding [its gender eligibility policy],” Turner said. “I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.”
“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you,” she added.
Even though Redmond warned Turner that she would likely be disqualified for refusing to compete, she accepted her fate anyway. Indeed, minutes after her refusal, the referees gave Turner the black card penalty, and she was expelled from the tournament.
USA Fencing notably has a policy allowing athletes to compete on teams according to their “gender identity,” rather than biological reality. While USA Fencing does not receive federal funds, they are the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport in the United States.
Department of Education spokeswoman Julie Hartman told the outlet that the University of Maryland bares “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.”
RELATED: Education Dept. Creates Special Team to Investigate “Staggering Volume” of Title IX Complaints
USA Fencing previously told the outlet that its current “transgender and non-binary athlete policy” was established in 2023 and is “designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces” and 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.”
The organization also said in Turner’s case, she was disqualified “merely [as] the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit.”
The investigation is one of the first from the joint DOE and DOJ’s joint Title IX investigations team, which was announced last week and created to handle the “staggering volume” of Title IX complaints.
“Protecting women and women’s sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights.”
President Trump’s executive order on “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” was created to protect female student athletes from having “to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.” The order also mandates each federal department to “review grants to education programs and, where appropriate, rescind funding to programs that fail to comply with the policy established in this order,” which protects women “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
President Trump’s executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” further states that “[t]he erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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