Female fencer Stephanie Turner joined Riley Gaines on the ‘Gaines For Girls‘ podcast to discuss the situation involving her recent decision to take a knee and forfeit a match hosted by USA Fencing against a transgender opponent. She specifically spoke about the extreme pushback that she and other female athletes who have made similar decisions put themselves at risk of receiving both in the public eye and behind the scenes.

Turner received the Courage Wins award presented by XX-XY Athletics for taking a stand and refusing to compete against a biological male, which, as she told Gaines, was something she appreciated given the fact that it can feel as if your life is being ‘nuked’ despite making a decision based on common sense.

“There are quite a lot of women who are witnessing men in their sports, and they’re trying to save their sports on their own, and it’s hard to come out because you essentially nuke your whole life,” Turner told Gaines. “You can face social ostracism, you can have financial blowback, you can have training disrupted, and you could have officials or referees now not being very favorable to you for the rest of your life. There is no end to the backlash that you may have.

It’s not fun being on the received end of this, it’s not what I wanted to do, it helps to have people acknowledge that it takes some sort of sacrifice to bring attention to an issue and I appreciate XX-XY for their acknowledgment.”

The Kneel Down Heard Around the World | Gaines for Girls

XX-XY Athletics also used a portion of its sales to award Turner a $5,000 grant.

Turner took a knee in her match against transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan during The Cherry Blossom – D1A/VET ROC event in Maryland. USA Fencing, host of the event, has not been shy about its desire to allow males who “identify” as women to compete against biological women.