Here’s your Irony ‘o’ the Day: In April 2022, Madison Youth & Family Services gave an award to a burly young man named Redmond Sullivan in honor of his “honesty, integrity, and responsibility” and for his “demonstrated commitment to the welfare of the greater community.” Then in 2024, Sullivan, who is a fencer, began crossdressing and competing in women’s fencing tournaments. Nothing says honesty, integrity, and commitment to the welfare of the greater community quite like lying about his sex and competing in sports where he doesn’t—by definition—belong.
In a fencing event last weekend, 31-year-old Stephanie Turner refused to fence Sullivan because he is a man, and this was a woman’s event. This account from Fox News exposes exactly who demonstrated honesty and integrity in this unfortunate event:
Turner went through all her warm-ups that day and went on to fence in four bouts before her matchup with the trans athlete. When it came, she was “nervous and shaky,” but was sure about her decision.
“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 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.’
“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.”
And right after that, Turner’s punishment by USA Fencing commenced.
“Redmond says to me, ‘Well you know, there is a member on the board of directors here who supports me, and there is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get blackcarded,’ and I said, ‘I know,” Turner said.
Minutes later, the referees dealt Turner a black card, which represents the most severe penalty, leading to expulsion from the tournament or event for serious rule infractions or unsportsmanlike behavior.
Turner said she was then escorted to the bout committee where she had to explain what she did. She says the members then handed her a copy of the association’s transgender policy and made her sign a document acknowledging the black card. Turner said she signed the document under objection.
Then, Turner was escorted out of the venue, she said.
A courageous, honest woman is ejected from a women’s athletic event because of the dishonesty, scandalous rulemaking of leftists, and the spinelessness of those who refuse to stand for truth.
Stephanie Turner sacrificed something she wanted and deserved in order to stand for truth. Sullivan doggedly pursues what he wants and doesn’t deserve in defiance of truth.
Reduxx reported that while attending Daniel Hand High School, “Bizarrely, Sullivan was allowed to compete in girls track and field while he was also competing in boys fencing at the same school.”
On June 1, 2023, Sullivan competed against high school girls in the shot put, placing first in a field of fifteen, beating the girl who came in second by 3 ½ feet.
When he began attending Wagner College, he was a member of the men’s fencing team. In June 2023 he competed in the New England Division USFA Pomme De Terre tournament and “placed 29th out of 58 male competitors.”
In October 2023, he was still listed on the men’s fencing team roster. Then in November 23, he was stealthily moved to the women’s fencing team, where—shockingly—his fencing stats improved dramatically.
Sullivan couldn’t violate the norms of honesty, integrity, and respect he does without Democrats and “trans” bootlickers, cowards, lemmings, and collaborators in athletic associations who socially construct policies and laws and then claim they must defer to the policies and laws they socially constructed.
Leftists systemically embed their anti-woman bigotry and anti-science superstition in policies and laws, and then others as part of the institutional hive mind, lack the will to oppose these policies and laws—not even in the service of the welfare of the greater community. No civil disobedience for the cause of justice among the worker bees.
Of course, as the country just witnessed when California Democrats successfully and shamefully fought to align themselves with crossdressers and against girls and women, it’s not only athletic associations that do the bidding of the “trans” cult.
California Democrats defeated not one but two bills designed to protect the intrinsic rights of girls and women. AB 89 would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school sports, “to amend its constitution, bylaws, and policies to prohibit a pupil whose sex was assigned male at birth from participating on a girls’ interscholastic sports team.”
AB 844 would have required that “a pupil’s participation in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use of facilities, including bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and overnight accommodations … be based upon the pupil’s sex.”
Both were defeated because in California, as in Illinois, boneheaded leftists who believe biological sex has no meaning and girls have no intrinsic sex-based rights, control the state legislature.
Leftists are fond of saying that “woman” and “man” are merely social constructs. What they are not fond of saying is that the belief that “woman” and “man” are social constructs is itself a social construct, and it’s one no one has an obligation to accept, espouse, or respect.
Those who want to honor honesty, integrity, and responsibility shouldn’t look at Democrats, public school administrators, or athletic associations. Look instead for those who have been standing up for the rights of women and children when it was hard to do, people like Stephanie Turner.