My Sword Is Yours: In Defense of Trans Athletes

USA Fencing, the governing body for the sport of fencing in the U.S., disqualified a cisgender woman from a recent competition after she refused to fence a transgender woman. As a former competitive fencer, I fully support the organization’s decision. Here’s why.

The Disqualification

USA Fencing disqualified Stephanie Turner, a cisgender woman, when she refused to fence Redmond Sullivan, a transgender woman, during a USA Fencing regional tournament (not an NCAA competition) last Sunday.

Turner’s disqualification, “which applies to this tournament only, was not related to any personal statement but was merely the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit,” said USA Fencing in a statement obtained by NBC News. The FIE is the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime, the sport’s international and Olympic governing body.

That seems like a pretty cut and dried application of the rules, but has triggered outrage in certain circles on social media.

Both Turner and Sullivan have “D” ratings in USA Fencing’s rating system—respectable, but far from elite. Ratings of A (highest) to E (lowest, but above U, unclassified) are determined by one’s results in USA Fencing competitions, the number of competitors at the competition, and their ratings. Neither Turner nor Sullivan is ranked in USA Fencing’s point standings for Senior Women’s Foil, the highest level of national competition.

Sullivan ended up 24th out of 39 in the tournament, which to me belies any overwhelming advantage because of being trans.

My Thoughts

I’ve shared some of this before, but the situation above compels me to do so again, with some updates.

I was an NCAA DIII varsity fencer at Wellesley College, a member of the Oxford University Blues Team in graduate school, and nationally competitive in USA Fencing tournaments for several years beyond college. I mostly competed in foil (one of the three weapons in modern fencing), but dabbled in saber. I also have a black belt in taekwondo. I’m a cisgender woman and have competed in both sports against cisgender women and cisgender men—mostly women, but occasionally in mixed tournaments. I’ve also competed in a few men’s fencing tournaments, and even medaled; sometimes, they’d ask me to compete in order to have a greater number of competitors; other times, back when women were just starting to do saber (insert rant about sexism in sports), I’d join a men’s saber tournament because there wasn’t one for women.

Some of the cis women I’ve competed against in both sports were 6′ tall; some of the cis men were 5’6″ or under, and vice versa. I was good but not exceptional, but I’ve won and I’ve lost regardless of gender, height, or weight. When I lost, I sucked it up and trained harder. Tell me I’d lose just because an opponent was bigger or stronger or a man and my instinct was to prove you wrong.

Yes, height and weight can be an advantage in some sports, but they can also be a disadvantage—and one learns to use what one has. In fencing, being small meant I made a smaller target, and my shorter arms gave me an advantage at close quarters. And in sports where weight really matters, like wrestling, there are weight categories so a 160-pound athlete doesn’t compete against a 100-pound one. (Having said that, sometimes there weren’t enough competitors at taekwondo tournaments to break out into weight categories and I’d end up sparring someone who outweighed me by quite a bit. I just learned to move faster.)

It’s also a fallacy to believe that trans women are always taller, heavier, or stronger than cis ones, contrary to what everyone opposed to their participation would have you believe. At the elite sports level, studies keep finding that trans women do not have an advantage over cis ones. And differences of sex development (DSD) can mean wide variations in physiology even among women who do not identify as trans.

Aside from DSD conditions, just consider basic size variations among cis women: Abby Roque, who plays for the New York Sirens in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), weighs 181 pounds; the Boston Fleet’s Alina Müller weighs 110 pounds. (Roque’s teammate Kayla Vespa is even lighter, at 106 pounds.) In the WNBA, Kalani Brown of the Phoenix Mercury is 6’7″ and weighs 245 pounds; Moriah Jefferson of the Chicago Sky is 5’6″ and 130 pounds. Should we tell them they can’t compete against each other because of their size differences? Where exactly do we draw the line?

Then there are all of the youth sports leagues in which some kids have hit growth spurts and others haven’t, and the size and strength discrepancy is vast, even within a single gender. Do we tell the smaller kids that they can’t play, or “protect” the smaller boys by having them compete on the girls’ teams? No. The point is to give all kids the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of sport with their peers, which usually means with others of their gender. Go read the story of 10-year-old Zoe, a girl in Arizona who just wants to play soccer with other girls, and happens to be trans.

More than half of states have laws or policies banning trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, per the Movement Advancement Project. An additional 70 state bills on the matter are advancing, according to the ACLU. These bills claim that trans girls have an unfair physical advantage over cis girls. Yet as the AP has pointed out, “in almost every case, sponsors cannot cite a single instance in their own state or region where such participation has caused problems.”

I’ll also point out that trans teen girls are in one of the most difficult situations. Those who are most opposed to trans girls playing girls’ sports are also often those who are against any kind of puberty blockers for trans kids—blockers that would keep trans girls from developing the muscle mass that opponents of trans inclusion see as unfair.

Want more information? Try “Four Myths About Trans Athletes, Debunked,” from Chase Strangio and Gabriel Arkles of the ACLU, or “Fair Play: The Importance of Sports Participation for Transgender Youth,” by Shoshana K. Goldberg at the Center for American Progress. As Goldberg asserts, “There is no evidence to support the claim that allowing transgender athletes to participate will reduce or harm participation in girls’ sports,” but “transgender sports bans can have disastrous consequences, particularly as they continue to perpetuate and legitimize rejection of gender identity. While inclusion in sports is not a cure-all for the deep-seated discrimination against transgender youth, their exclusion from such activities can potentially put their lives at risk.”

What about at the elite level, though, or at sub-elite levels that can serve as development arenas for elite levels, such as the USA Fencing tournament above? Should trans athletes be allowed to compete? Yes; sports are for everyone, and there’s no reason to exclude an entire category of humans. Should they be required to be on hormone therapy before competing? Perhaps in some sports, but that’s not for me to say. Others have studied this in more detail, and as trans journalist Evan Urquhart has explained, there are many nuances. I’ll just say that there probably aren’t blanket statements or policies we can make across all sports.

Banning trans girls and women from competing with cis girls and women is not just bad for trans people, though. It also sends the message that girls and women as a whole are unable to compete with boys and men (because those who want to ban trans girls and women see them as boys and men). In some sports, cis men may have an advantage, but it is not as clear cut as some would have you believe, particularly at non-elite levels. Experience and consistent training count for a lot. But if you claim that girl/women athletes are always “lesser” than boys/men, you’re on a fast track to treating women’s sports as inferior and not providing girls and women athletes with the support and resources that they really need to thrive. Those who claim they are “protecting” cis women and girls in sports by banning trans women and girls are most often doing the opposite.

Yes, there will be times when transgender women and girls will beat cisgender ones in sports, but it will be because of their training and determination, or a bad day on the part of the competitor, or any number of other factors (ask me about my lucky socks) other than merely the sex of the person.

“USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion, and we’re committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic & Paralympic movement,” the organization’s statement said. At a time when our federal government and an increasing number of other organizations are rejecting the idea of inclusion, USA Fencing is to be commended for affirming it.

I, too, will stand by trans athletes and defend their right to participate and compete as their true selves. To all trans athletes, my sword is yours.