Trans athlete battle: Trump admin comes to Title IX agreement with Wagner

The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday it came to an agreement with Wagner College on the issue of biologically male trans athletes in women’s sports. The agreement cites a viral incident where female fencer Stephanie Turner kneeled to protest a trans fencer who competed for Wagner, at a USA Fencing event.

Wagner has agreed to apologize to all of its female athletes who competed against the trans athlete, Redmond Sullivan, per the DOE announcement. The school will also adopt new biological definition for male and female in its sports programs, per the announcement. 

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Footage of Turner kneeling toward Sullivan at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland went viral in early April. Turner was given a black card, the harshest penalty in the sport, for her refusal to fence Sullivan, disqualified from the event and dealt a 12-month probation. 

Sullivan did not represent Wagner at the event.

Wagner later told Fox News Digital that Sullivan was no longer on the fencing team. The NCAA had changed its gender eligibility policy to comply President Donald Trump’s executive order on the issue in early February.

WHO IS STEPHANIE TURNER? WOMEN’S FENCER WHO KNELT TO PROTEST TRANS OPPONENT AND IGNITED GLOBAL AWARENESS 

But now Wagner is complying directly with Trump’s administration to address the incident. 

The agreement comes just weeks after the University of Pennsylvania came to a similar agreement over the 2022 Lia Thomas controversy. 

“On the heels of our agreement with the University of Pennsylvania, the Trump Administration secured another historic Title IX agreement with Wagner College. After Stephanie Turner, a female athlete, bravely take a knee and forfeit a fencing match against a male competing in a female category, our Office for Civil Rights launched its investigation into Wagner College and the University of Maryland, where the event was hosted. Wagner has agreed to apologize for putting a male on their female fencing team and will revise its policies to comply with Title IX,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. 

“Because of President Trump’s leadership, the tide is turning on our nation’s campuses. We commend Wagner College for working with the Department to repair its harm to female athletes and ensuring future generations of women and girls have equal opportunities.”

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The Department of Education provided a list of conditions:

• Wagner will amend its athletic policy to adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” pursuant to Title IX;
• Wagner will issue a public statement to the college community stating that it will comply with Title IX, specifying that Title IX forbids Wagner from allowing male students to compete in female athletic programs and from occupying female intimate facilities;
• The statement will specify that Title IX applies irrespective of any current or future policies that may conflict with the statement, and that Wagner will not delegate its obligation to comply with Title IX to an external association that discriminates on the basis of sex;
• Wagner will post the statement in a prominent location on its main website and on each of its websites for women’s athletics;
• Wagner will rescind any guidance that authorized males to compete in women’s athletics, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all staff and women’s athletics teams of all such rescissions; and
• Wagner will issue a personalized letter of apology to any Wagner College female fencer and issue a public statement of apology to all female athletes who were required to compete against a male in a Wagner athletics program designated for women.
• According to the agreement, Wagner has reviewed whether any male student athlete competing in women’s athletics for Wagner College received any individual athletic records or recognitions by Wagner for athletic competitions and determined that no such recognitions were received.

Wagner said in a statement to its student body that it “resolved” issues related to the Title IX investigation and agreed with the Office of Civil Rights on several main points.

“OCR’s investigation focused on one Wagner student’s participation in women’s fencing for a semester before the issuance of the 2025 Executive Orders cited above. I want to affirm that in allowing that student to participate, Wagner was following the NCAA and USA Fencing rules applicable at the time, and our agreement with OCR makes clear that there was no admission or finding of any wrongdoing by the College,” the statement from school president Jeffrey Doggett said. “Wagner was and is following the laws and rules as we understand them to apply, and we will continue to do so. 

 “We recognize, nonetheless, that some student-athletes were negatively impacted by Wagner’s following those rules. We sincerely apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage, and we regret any distress anyone experienced as a result of the College’s adherence to the policies in effect at the time.”

Fox News’ Ryan Canfield contributed to this report. 

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