Damien Lehfelt, the chair of USA Fencing, publicly championed men disadvantaging women after being called out for allowing trans athletes in women’s fencing.
The Independent Council of Women’s Sports shared several screenshots this week from Lehfelt’s Instagram Stories in which he outright said that “cisgendered” women should be disadvantaged while arrogantly thumbing his nose in the face of a woman who complained about his stance.
According to Reduxx, Lehfelt previously said “transgender women are women” when he posted an article to his blog, The Fencing Coach, and even told women to believe that giving male “athletes a sense of belonging and a will to live is more powerful than medals and competitive glory.”
In response, some social media users sent him anonymous messages asking him to clarify his position, seemingly bewildered that a USA Fencing official would so brazenly oppose fair opportunities for female athletes.
“Are you okay with cis females being at a disadvantage?” one person asked Lehfeldt in a question he posted to his Instagram story, to which he simply responded: “Yeah.”
One anonymous source told Reduxx that women in the fencing community have become fearful of voicing their misgivings about allowing men in women’s sports.
“It is reflective of fencing being linked to entry into college, specifically, and highly competitive universities. Most schools that have a fencing team are in the Ivy League, and one of the best ways to get into the Ivy League is through fencing,” said one source. “The problem with this issue is that it’s so inflammatory that it’s hard to say anything without someone calling you a bigot, a Nazi, or a ‘violent threat to other people’ for not believing that men can become women or believing that men should be competing in the women’s division.”
As Breitbart News reported this week, women’s fencer Stephanie Turner refused a match against a transgender opponent at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland this past weekend, opting to take a knee instead. When Turner learned that she would be facing off against transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan, she wanted her protest to be caught on video and decided to take a knee just before the match began. She had already participated in warmups and competed in four bouts that day. Take a look:
Speaking with Fox News, Turner said 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.
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