Women’s sports activist aims to 'platform' knee-taking fencer as the latest winner of courage award
XX-XY Athletics founder and CEO Jennifer Sey spoke out about why she was awarding a female fencer with a courage award after the athlete's stance against a transgender opponent in a match.
Sey announced during an interview with "America Reports" that she is honoring fencer Stephanie Turner, who was disqualified in March from competing in a tournament at the University of Maryland after she took a knee rather than compete against a transgender athlete.
"We call them our Courage Wins Champions," Sey said. "They are women who stand up or stand down from competing to defend women's sports."
USA FENCING FACES TEXAS PROBE AFTER FEMALE FENCER PROTESTS AGAINST COMPETING WITH TRANS ATHLETE
The athletics brand also used a portion of its sales to award its latest Courage Wins Champion a $5,000 grant, according to its post on X, formerly Twitter.
"We aim to take the sting out of monetary cancelation and platform these women and bring them on board," Sey said. "They have community. They have support. They will not stand alone."
Turner joins a growing group of female athletes opposed to competing against transgender athletes.
More recently, professional disc golfer Abigail Wilson went viral for walking out of her tournament in Nashville, Tenn., after she learned she had the same tee time as a transgender athlete.
"I believe women like Stephanie Turner, the fencer, and Abigail Wilson, the disc golfer, are starting a movement," Sey said. "This is not a moment. It is a movement of truth and bravery that has begun."
Sey, the country’s 1986 national gymnastics champion, praised both athletes’ bravery.
"I'm so proud of these women," Sey told co-anchor John Roberts. "I have such admiration for them. It could be career-ending, and they do it anyway."
After Roberts noted a transgender runner setting season records in an Oregon high school’s girls' track races, Sey insisted that cases like Turner’s and Wilson’s are not isolated incidents.
"Women's sports are not the place for failed male athletes or mediocre male athletes to go," Sey said. "Compete in the category to which you were born. People say it's just a handful. It's not a handful — I can name 10 in the last week alone. Enough, it's over."
On Feb. 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.
While the NCAA followed Trump’s executive order the following day, USA Fencing wrote in a statement to the University of Maryland’s student newspaper that the tournament from which Turner was banned was not an NCAA event.
The club defended Turner’s disqualification as being in accordance with international rules to compete with eligible opponents, before affirming its commitment to "inclusivity" in a statement.
"… 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," USA Fencing stated on its website. "Within our divisions, USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth."