Award for fencer who refused to compete against transwoman

[Hairyesterdaygonetoday]

Stephanie Turner gave up her chance of winning a US fencing competition by refusing to compete against transgender Redmond Sullivan.

She was immediately banned from the competition.

But she has now received a $5,000 award for courage, and a place on a leadership programme.

The Courage Wins award was made by XX-XY Athletics, an organisation founded to defend women’s sports.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-14581947/stephanie-turner-trans-fencing-rival-award.html

I no longer apologise for posting Daily Mail stories, as the left-wing media I used to read now ignore or distort news about women’s rights.

My thanks to the Mail also for this connected story about transgender influence in US sports.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-14569285/american-fencing-trans-culture-stephanie-turner-redmond-sullivan.html

That’s a great idea, that there is immediate support for the athlete.

That still is 👌 It reminds me of that statue that’s dubbed the Mansplaining statue.

So annoying when people put their feet on seats <misses point>

Thank you for this update. That is lovely to hear.

Thanks for the bad news/good news/better news story, OP, I think it's great that women taking a stand against men in their sports are being supported and rewarded.

The Courage Wins award is like a parallel merit system, where courage and principle are being rewarded alongside sporting ability - gosh I can almost hear the Chariots of Fire theme music in my head

I hadn't seen that statue, but found out that it's on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word, in San Antonio TX. What a name for a uni, eh? There's a college in Ireland called Mary Immaculate College, they should be twinned! Mary Immaculate College is informally referred to as 'Mary I' [as in the letter I], I wonder what 'Incarnate Word' is called informally?

The statue is awful, and crying out for captions; and yes borntobequiet, as if mansplaining wasn't bad enough, putting feet on seats while doing it is inexcusable

Oh I'm so glad for her ❤️

One day women who made a stand will be celebrated in Hollywood movies but we could be waiting a while!

Another one really pleased to see this. Here's her interview with journalist Oliver Brown of the Telegraph (he's relentlessly pursuing this and giving women involved a voice):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2025/04/06/transgender-row-fencer-stephanie-turner-interview/

Archive link: https://archive.ph/GhrpD

The mansplaining statue is marvellous. What is it supposed to represent?

This story has been all over Facebook, and it's heartening to see that 99.9% of people are applauding her stand. There is another story out there too, about a uk pool competition that has two trans women in the finals, that has sparked outrage too.

Good for her! And good for those who awarded her. It takes so much courage to stand up to these men and to take the flak and harassment (and probably a sewer of appalling social media) and the losses of income, awards, places, opportunities and even career. Women are being so heavily coerced into enabling and submitting.

I think classmates or friends talking. The sculptor’s daughter attended the university.

Interesting to see the supposed roles of the man/woman, because it's difficult to imagine the poses with the sexes switched around. "Mansplaining statue" is a perfect name.

I also thought when looking at the fencing video, when Sullivan came over to talk to her, it looked all "faux concerned".

The Courage Wins award is like a parallel merit system, where courage and principle are being rewarded alongside sporting ability - gosh I can almost hear the Chariots of Fire theme music in my head

That’s how I feel too, Marie! Reminds me of when sports were meant to be, well, sporting.

And remember the word “sportsmanship” which included admirable qualities such as honesty and fair play? Strange that if there was a female version of the word, it wasn’t much used.

Yet these days we’re seeing heroic actions by women to defend the principles of sport. And I’ve seen bloody little ‘sportsmanship’ among male players, who should be yelling at the men who take women’s prizes.

We are missing a word that describes this new behaviour. Can I suggest "Sportstranswomanship"?

I was really disappointed to read this today.

Minnesota Fencing Division Eliminates Women's Competitions Rather Than Ban Trans Athletes. https://archive.ph/xVWy5 https://1010wcsi.com/fox-sports/usa-fencing-minnesota-division-to-only-sanction-mixed-events-in-response-to-trans-ban/

In Minnesota, rather than ban males from competing against women they have erased the entire women's division.

That’s awful. The thing is, international sports bodies are (slowly) resetting. If the us, individual states or various other nations continue down this path, they are effectively undermining their own future success in women’s competitions as, at some point, they won’t be able to enter mediocre men with mental health issues. And we all know how much the us likes to win stuff. It’ll be something like that that peaks these idiot law-makers - not doing the right thing by women, unfortunately.