Wagner College agreed to those stipulations, and more, after the U.S. Department of Education concluded Wagner violated Title IX by allowing a male fencer to participate on the female team.
The college, founded in the 1880s as a Lutheran seminary, was unknown to many until its female fencing team competed in a USA Fencing event hosted by the University of Maryland. That event, held in March, is where female fencer Stephanie Turner forfeited her match when she was paired with Redmond Sullivan, a Wagner fencer who is male but identifies as female.
The confrontation between Turner and Sullivan went viral after a photo showed Turner kneeling in protest and forfeiting her match, and then getting a black card from a referee which disqualified her.
The incident also made Wagner a target of the female-defending Trump administration and the Civil Rights Division of the DOE.
Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player, is now at the Independent Women’s Forum. She tells AFN she was thankful to learn Wagner is being required to formally apologize to Turner and other female athletes.
“I think this sets a clear precedent,” she says, “that schools can no longer hide behind conference policies or social pressure to justify allowing this.”
The issue is a personal one for McNabb, who was knocked unconscious during a match in 2023 when a female-identifying player spiked the ball.
Much like that injury turned McNabb into a vocal activist, Turner's incident did the same. McNabb sat next to Turner during a congressional hearing on female-only sports.
“She is just an absolute heroine,” McNabb says of Turner. “She’s incredibly strong and passionate and principled."
Turner told The Daily Mail she had avoided participating in several tournaments because of transgender fencers. After growing frustrated, however, she said entered the University of Maryland competition as a form of protest. She did so knowing her stance was the minority view among female athletes as well as tournament referees, she said.
