New Delhi:

In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s stance on preventing transgender women from competing in the sports, a fresh incident from Maryland’s College Park has sparked another controversy on the sensitive matter.

Stephanie Turner, a female fencer, was recently disqualified from the women’s tournament following her reluctance to compete against her opponent, whom she claimed to be a transgender. As a result, the USA Fencing, the national sports governing body, took the action accordingly.

According to Fox News, Stephanie was scheduled to compete against Redmond Sullivan at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland. Just a night before the event, Stephanie had decided to take the knee before her fight against Redmond as she had read an article about him before the competition.

“I saw that I was going to be in a pool with Redmond, and from there I said, ‘OK, let’s do it. I’m going to take the knee,” Stephanie told Fox News Digital.

“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 I 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,” she added.

As per the Associated Press report, the USA Fencing said it enacted its current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. It couldn’t be proven that Redmond is transgender and for now it remains only to be a claim.

The national sports federation in its statement said that a ‘fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason’, as reported by news agency The Associated Press.

In a video which is widely circulated across social media platforms, Stephanie is seen taking a knee as an act of protest just before her competition. The match official displayed a black card to the reluctant participant and was further disqualified from the remaining part of the competition.

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