Girls Sports

USA Fencing Explicitly Prioritizes Men’s Feelings Over Women’s Safety and Athletic Achievement

USA Fencing (USAF) disqualified Stephanie Turner from a fencing tournament last month after she refused to compete against a male athlete.

Her sacrifice has blown the lid off USAF policies prioritizing transgender-identified men’s feelings over biological women’s safety and achievement.

Stephanie Turner spent time and money training for a regional USAF tournament in March, only to learn Redmond Sullivan, a man, would also be competing.

“As a woman fencing in a women’s tournaments, I do not believe men should fence in my category,” Turner told ABC News yesterday. She continued:

I was not aware Mr. Sullivan was registered until the night before the tournament. I prayed about it and decided if Mr. Sullivan and I were to fence face-to-face, then I would peaceably protest by taking a knee.

Turner followed through, earning a black card (disqualification) for her trouble.

When the story gained national attention this week, Turner told ABC simply:

I want to thank God for trusting me with this mission to fight for female-exclusive sports and putting me in an effective place to protest.

What an admirable, godly response to such injustice. And trust me — “unjust” is the kindest word I can use to describe USAF’s actions.

The organization told news outlets Turner’s disqualification was nothing personal. Fencers that refuse to face “eligible opponents” must be disqualified, it told ABC.

But Sullivan is only an “eligible opponent” in the women’s category because of USAF’s 2023 policy allowing athletes to “participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/expression.”

The policy’s introduction reads, in part:

USA Fencing is committed to ensuring athletes have the opportunity to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events on a fair, inclusive and safe basis without discrimination.
We recognize not all individuals’ gender identities are binary, and a gender binary default for participation could potentially cause harm — leaving some individuals to feel excluded and unsafe.

Far be it from USAF to make anyone feel “excluded or unsafe” — oh, except for women.

Predictably, USAF’s “Transgender and Nonbinary Policy” triggered a substantial increase of male athletes competing in women’s fencing competitions. Fox News reports:

By September 2023, four biological male fencers, who previously competed in the men’s category, achieved USA Fencing podium finishes in the women’s category.

One of these competitors was Redmond Sullivan.

USAF lauded the influx of trans competitors in a press release on the 2023-2024 fencing season’s “impact.” Under “Expanded Representation,” the release reads:

Year-over-year data show an upward trend in membership, with more women, and more non-binary athletes, trying fencing through local clubs and developmental programs.

By “women,” of course, USAF also means “men who identify as women.”

Turner is not the only member of the fencing enraged over USAF’s mistreatment of women. A non-profit called the Fair Fencing Organization (FFO) has written two open letters to USAF, one in December and one in February, asking it to reconsider its Transgender and Nonbinary Policy.

“It is disappointing that USA Fencing has intentionally been confusing … who should fence in what category with the nonexistent issue that [“transgender” fencers] should be allowed to fence,” FFO wrote in its most recent letter.

“It was never a question that all cisgender and transgender fencers should be allowed to fence, in the category of their birth sex.”

USAF’s board members voted 8-3 against revising or changing the contested policy in December. It’s unlikely this latest uproar will make any difference.

Consider this August 2023 blogpost from the board’s director at-large, Damien Lehfeldt.

“Before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy,” Lehfeldt writes, continuing:

  • Transgender women are women and gender is not sex.
  • Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply with the competition guidelines and regulations outlined by USA Fencing and the IOC—even if the science of those IOC guidelines might be imperfect.
  • A separate division denies them their truth to compete as their authentic selves and is antithetical to USA Fencing’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) vision.
  • There is a possibility that transgender women have a physical advantage over their cisgender opponents after transitioning. There is also a possibility they do not. In Fencing, there is no data to support either viewpoint.
  • Giving athletes a sense of belonging a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll touch only on Lehfeldt’s last point, where he explicitly states that the feelings of transgender-identified men are more important than women’s athletic success.

His descriptions are particularly telling. The men’s feelings, Lehfeldt implies, are so important that their “will to live” will desert them if they cannot compete against women. He trivializes women’s athletic ambitions, in comparison, minimizing them to the mere collection of medals or the vain pursuit of “glory.”

Taken together, Lehfeldt comments not only erase women as a biological category, but suggest they are selfish to ask transgender-identified men to compete in a separate category.

As a woman, and a former competitive athlete, I feel qualified to say — what a joke.

If Lehfeldt’s beliefs are representative of other USAF board members, than Stephanie Turner and her compatriots are facing down a proverbial goliath.

Happily, our God is in the business of toppling giants. Please pray for His intervention on behalf of female athletes in USAF.

Additional Articles and Resources

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Fairfax County High School: ‘A Is for Abortion’ – A Cautionary Tale for Parents

A high school in Fairfax County, Virginia, celebrated Women’s History Month with a hallway decorated by “school administrators and teachers … with a special, leftist rendition of the alphabet” that included the phrase, “A is for Abortion,” The Daily Signal reported.

The incident at West Springfield High School highlights the need for parental involvement in their children’s education – not just in Northern Virginia, but across the country.

Parents are responsible for their children’s education, and they must be engaged in order to counteract and protect children from indoctrination in woke ideologies.

The “ABCs to ME” display at West Springfield also included uplifting sayings for students like “Q is for Queer,” “M is for Mansplain” and “F is for Femicide,”

That last sign directly contradicts the “A is for Abortion” poster, given that more than 63 million infants have been killed in the U.S. since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, and more than half of these are female.

Millions of preborn girls aborted – that is real femicide.

That’s not even mentioning the spiritual, physical, mental and emotional harms to women who abort their preborn children.

Each letter of the alphabet in the display included two signs with different words or phrases representing each letter. So, for example, another A sign said, “A is for Athletes,” showing pictures of female athletes.

Without any apparent awareness of the irony, a different sign said, “T is for Trans Women.” So the school applauds female athletes – but also the boys who claim to be women who rob real teen girls of athletic opportunities, victories and scholarships, as well as assaulting their safety and privacy in girls restrooms, showers and locker rooms.

Other objectionable posters had slogans like “P is for Patriarchy,” “P is for Persecution,” “O is for Objectification” and “Z is for male gaZe.” In addition to playing fast and loose with the alphabet, the sloganeering paints all men as the enemy.

What a treat it must’ve been for high school boys to walk down the school hallway and seen posters denigrating them. The educators who posted the sign might as well have had pictures of teen boys with a sign that said, “E is for Enemy.”

The alphabet portrays a huge problem with “progressive” ideology – it separates humans into identity groups and pits them against each other. Why not simply celebrate the accomplishments of women during Women’s History Month, instead of attacking boys and men?

The dogmatic, simplistic little sayings also spread confusion. Are women victors – “L is for Limitless,” “O is for Olympian” and “T is for Triumph,” or are they victims – “G is for Gaslight” and “P is for Persecution”?

This is the latest in a list of incidents where the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) District has implemented policies that sexualize, confuse and harm children, as the Daily Citizen has previously reported:

  • In 2021, Stacy Langton, a mother of six, with the two oldest attending Fairfax High School. She made headlines for reading aloud portions of sexually explicit books from the school library at a school board meeting. The books, including Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison and Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, include explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation, as well as graphic descriptions of sex between men and children. The school banned her from entering the library.
  • That same year, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced it was removing the two books from school libraries. At the time, Lawn Boy was available in 11 FCPS high schools, while Gender Queer was available at 7 schools. But after reviewing the books, the district placed the sexually explicit materials back on school library shelves.
  • In March 2024, as part of its celebration of “Neurodiversity Affirmation Week,” district staff designed posters that were “were ‘hung in each of our schools as a constant reminder of the uniqueness of human thought,’” reported Parents Defending Education, a parental rights advocacy group. “Neurodiversity” is not a medical term, but it is used by activists to portray brain functioning issues as “normal variations.” It usually encompasses issues like autism, dyslexia and obsessive compulsive disorder. “However,” the group added, “the district’s poster that students saw also attempts to extend the meaning of neurodiversity to include ‘gender,’ ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘ethnicity,’ ‘race,’ and ‘religion/spirituality.’”
  • FCPS chose to ignore parents opposition to teaching children about “gender identity” in its Family Live Education program. More than 80% of parents responded to a district survey saying they did not support this teaching. But as one parent said, when the district wants to do something, ““they appoint a committee filled with people with viewpoints to get the outcome they want, ask for community feedback, then ignore and manipulate the feedback.”

It’s clear that Fairfax schools have embraced radical, sexualized ideology. Again, this spotlights the great need for parents to be involved in their local schools.

The woke alphabet posters also exemplify why educational freedom for all students is desperately needed in every state. Children should be able to attend schools that support their family’s values and avoid schools that inculcate them into harmful, false ideologies.

Related Articles and Resources

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, critical race theory, sexual education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Fairfax County Puts Obscene Books Back in School Libraries

Fairfax School Board Votes to Suspend Students for ‘Maliciously Misgendering’ Other Students

Indoctrination Station: New York State Education Department Pushes Critical Theory on Students

Parents Support Core Subjects, Keeping Males out of Female Sports

Teachers are Invaluable, But They Aren’t Our Children’s Parents

Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom

Virginia School District Ignore Parents Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

Image from Shutterstock.

Olympic Track and Field Protects Women. Why Won’t Other Sports Do the Same?

All women competing in Olympic track and field events will now be required to confirm their gender via a cheek swab or dry blood DNA test.

Sebastian Coe, who heads up World Athletics, the governing body of track, was clear-headed and resolute in announcing the new policy.

“We’re not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it,” Coe said. “And this, we feel, is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”

Inexplicably, the International Olympic Committee has elected to leave this issue up to each sport’s international federation.

It’s this leadership vacuum that not only threatens the integrity of individual sports but also jeopardizes the health and safety of the athletes themselves.

Readers will remember Imane Khelif, the Algerian male Olympic boxer who competed against women. Khelif was awarded a gold medal, despite having been disqualified by the International Boxing Association a few years earlier after tests revealed Imane with an XY chromosome.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) went along with Khelif’s charade and allowed the boxer to punch away on female athletes.

Track and Field has been navigating this gender controversy since 2009 when Caster Semenya, a South African athlete with naturally high testosterone levels, first won a gold medal in 800 meters at the World Championships.

Semenya has a condition called 5a-Reductase 2 deficiency, the same condition Khelif reportedly has been diagnosed with. Now 34 years of age, the track and field star was ordered in 2019 to suppress testosterone levels – but refused.

As the Daily Citizen’s Emily Washburn has previously reported:

5-alpha is a terrible, disorienting disorder. It also categorically disqualifies sufferers from participating in female sports … Khelif had XY chromosomes, normal male levels of testosterone and male reproductive organs. That means he has the same chromosomal and hormonal advantages all men have over women athletically, including heavier bones, bulkier muscles, broader shoulder and larger hearts and lungs.

But at the heart of the new track policy isn’t really the exceptions and the outliers but rather those male athletes who seem determined to game the system and by doing so, achieve a competitive advantage.

Be aware that you’ll be reading in the coming days and weeks that World Athletics is banning “transwomen athletes” – but such a claim isn’t true. That’s because there’s no such thing as a “transwoman” – there are just two genders, male and female. Just because a man is pretending to be a woman doesn’t make it so.

Human Rights Watch and other critics have described DNA testing rules of female athletes as abusive, harmful, discriminatory and accusatory.

It’s true that male athletes are not similarly tested, but women masquerading as men provides no competitive advantage. And complaining that such testing portrays women as “cheats” belies the reality of other similar checks such as screenings for performance enhancing drugs.

Trust but verify.

It’s been 125 years since women first appeared in the 1900 Olympics in Paris. There were just 22 of them out of a total of 997 athletes. These commonsense policies being implemented in Track and Field will ensure that the distinctiveness of female competition will be maintained and protected in the upcoming Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles in 2028.

This is a good thing, and every other Olympic sport should race to follow suit.

Girls Sports Coaches are Incentivized to Recruit Men — Parents Shouldn’t Let Them

Men don’t belong in women’s sports.

After years of watching men swing, shatter, punch and stomp their way to women’s trophies, its refreshing to know the vast majority of Americans — including the president — finally agree.

But America’s rediscovery of women’s rights doesn’t erase years of affirming young men for invading women’s spaces and stealing their athletic victories.

States, public schools and institutions like the NCAA aren’t stepping up to protect your sisters, daughters and nieces. Some proudly pledge to continue allowing boys to compete in girls sports, even if they lose federal funding.

Men are still taking women’s trophies. Girls are still being forced to change in front of boys.

It’s vital that parents and concerned citizens stand in the gap for their loved ones. Your mission? Eliminate incentives for men to compete in women’s sports — starting with the coaches.

Boys make girls teams virtually unbeatable, which means coaches have incentives to recruit them.

This isn’t a cynical take. Allen Cornwall coaches Class A track and field in Maine, where Katie Spencer, formerly John Rydzewski, “won” a pole-vaulting title in February. The former track and field official told Outkick:

“[Spencer’s assistant coach] was kind of into it. Someone said he had ‘championship fever’… [he was excited] to win both the boys and girls championships at the state level. It was kind of disgusting.

The unnamed coach’s “championship fever” was so strong, Cornwall alleged, that he kept quiet about Spencer taking a biological female’s place. Outkick paraphrases:

[Spencer’s assistant coach] told Cornwall he suspected a female pole vaulter at [Greely High School] declined to try out for the team this season, knowing that she could not defeat Spencer and wouldn’t make the team.

Too often, coaches abdicate their protective responsibilities by blaming the institution in charge. “The [school, institution, state, ad nauseum] allows men to participate,” they say. “My hands are tied.”

I would have had more sympathy for this argument four years ago. Under the previous presidential administration, coaches risked termination and federal prosecution for keeping males off women’s sports teams. In the days of Lia, formerly Will, Thomas, most coaches likely didn’t know what gender ideology was — let alone how to combat it.

Today, those excuses hold no weight. The ol’ “man says he’s woman to appear better at sports” playbook is predictable. The Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Education (what remains of it) are behind coaches who keep men off women’s teams.

So are parents and almost 80% of Americans.

So, if you are a coach, protect your female players — period. Do not allow a man to join your team. If you are forced to do so, inform parents immediately and ensure the man changes in a separate locker room. Speak emphatically and often about your concern for your players’ safety.

Parents, make allowing a man on a girls’ team so inconvenient and unpleasant that coaches have no desire to recruit them. Talk about Title IX violations open and honestly with anyone who will listen. Attend school board meetings, contact your local family policy council, file a discrimination complaint with the Department of Education — anything warning coaches against allowing men to participate in women’s sports.

As always, children’s safety comes first. If a coach remains unwilling to keep a girls team single-sex, parents must remove their daughter from the dangerous situation.

It’s easier than ever for Americans to speak out against men pushing women out of their own sports. It’s past time for coaches to buck up and get on board — and for parents to make them.

Additional Articles and Resources

Girls Just Wanna Have Privacy: Mom Files Complain About Male in Girl’s Locker Room

Maine School Violated Title IX, Must Apologize, Feds Say

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces            

Yet Another man Steals Women’s Trophies

Olympic Women’s Boxing Champ is Officially a Man

San Jose Coach Suspended for Filing Discrimination Complaint Against Transgender Player

Victory for Girls Sports: Court Halts DOE Redefinition of Sex

Shoving Girls Off the Podium: More Male Athletes Participating in Girls Sports

Olympic Privilege? Officials Protect Women’s Sports — But Only at the Highest Level

Male and Female Biology Matters

New Study: Testosterone Blockers and Female Hormones Don’t Erase Male-Female Athletic Differences

Girls Just Wanna Have Privacy: Mom Files Complaint About Male in Girls Locker Room

A Chicago mom filed a complaint with the Justice Department after school administrators allegedly tried to force her 13-year-old daughter to change clothes in the locker room – while a male student was present.

Nicole Georgas spoke out against the incident at a Deerfield School District 109 School Board meeting on March 13, 2025, a meeting which was packed with transgender activists and their allies.

Georgas began by explaining what she wanted from the board, saying, “I’m here to demand that the locker rooms at District 109 be designated as biological male and biological female, as there already is a gender neutral option. The girls want their locker rooms and bathrooms back. They want their privacy back.”

Georgas then described the events at Alan B. Shepard Middle School that led her to testify.

My 13-year old daughter’s well-being and mental health and privacy are at stake.

This nightmare began on February 5th when my daughter was using the girl’s bathroom and was stunned that a biological male student was using it as well. She came home frightened and was extremely upset.

I asked her to talk with her teachers and find out more information. She was told by the administration that the [male] student can use the bathroom as well as a female locker room because they now identify as female.

Transgender-identified activists and their allies filled the room, booing and heckling this brave mom, shouting about “children” and their “genitals.”

The activists, who oppose privacy and safety for girls, also spoke to the board. One radical glared threateningly at Georgas, claiming that “trans students” were targeted “by an organization that weaponizes religion to push the white supremacist agenda of their cis white husbands.”

“Cisgender” is a nonsense term, made up by trans activists, to signify healthy people who accept their God-given male or female bodies.

Chicago’s Morning Answer radio show broke the story, and posted Georgas’ testimony.

The school’s transgender policy follows guidance from the Illinois Department of Human Rights, based on The Illinois Human Rights Act, passed in 1979, “providing for broad civil rights coverage for the people of Illinois.” The Act was expanded in 2006 “to include ‘sexual orientation’ as a distinct protected class and ‘gender-related identity’ within the definition of ‘sexual orientation.’”

According to the guidance,

Use of restrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms may not be restricted based upon a student’s physical anatomy or chromosomal sex. A student must be permitted to access restrooms or bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms that align with their gender-related identity and without having to provide documentation or other proof of gender.

Basically, any male student can claim to identify as female and use the girls restrooms, locker rooms and showers, regardless of a girl’s feelings, as the Department of Human Rights goes on to explain,

Under the [Human Rights] Act, the discomfort or privacy concerns of other students, teachers, or parents are not valid reasons to deny or limit the full and equal use of facilities based on a student’s gender-related identity. …

[T]here is no right that insulates a student from coming in contact with others who are different than them or a Bathroom Privacy Act, unless the behavior violates a school policy or is criminal.

Georgas went on to say that the school emailed her and the principal phoned her. The school’s legal counsel advised that “the [male] student could use both the [girls] locker room and bathroom.”

She then explained that the school was violating federal policy, pointing to the Trump administration’s executive order “restricting biological males from participating in girls sports and accessing female locker rooms.”

That same day, Georgas said, “I filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of my daughter with the Department of Justice. It has now been referred to the Department of Education.”

The situation then went “from bad to worse,” Georgas explained that, “A few days later, the male student was present in the girls locker room. Feeling violated, the girls made the choice to not change into their PE clothes with a biological male student present.”

The next day, the assistant principal pulled the girls into her office to question them, and then the superintendent, the assistant principle, and “multiple teachers all came into the girls locker room, making them change into uniform.”

“This went on all week,” she said.

Her daughter would not comply.

“She is not changing for the remainder of the year, and she is not changing into another [P.E.] class,” her mom stated, adding,

“The girls just want their privacy, and they want their locker room back. …”

“This is my daughter’s story and the story of many other young girls who have been forced at the difficult age to do something they know – and most adults know – is wrong.”

We are thankful for women like Nicole Georgas who speak out – and take action – on behalf of girls’ privacy and safety. May she prevail in her complaint.

Related Articles and Resources

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