Fencer Stephanie Turner, who was disqualified from a women's tournament last year after refusing to compete against a transgender opponent, says a newly revealed detail vindicates her protest. The opponent, Redmond Sullivan, had been receiving a women's athletic scholarship, a fact that emerged in a recent profile of Sullivan. The story feeds into the wider, politically charged debate in the United States over the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport.

According to a CT Mirror profile, Sullivan received a $5,000 athletic scholarship per semester while competing at Wagner College, having moved from the men's fencing team to the women's team in 2024. Sullivan lost the scholarship after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at keeping males out of women's sports and after the NCAA changed its transgender athlete policy. Turner became a viral figure in March 2025 when she removed her mask, took a knee and refused to fence Sullivan in the Division 1A women's foil event at the USA Fencing-sanctioned Cherry Blossom Open at the University of Maryland, for which she was issued a black card and disqualified. Turner told OutKick the scholarship detail highlighted transgender athletes "earning coveted positions on college sports teams, scholarship money, and awards off the backs of deserving women," while the CT Mirror profile framed Sullivan's experience as one of loss and rebuilding.