Open Letter to USA Fencing Members
December 21, 2024
Dear USA Fencing members:
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In the board meeting held on December 14, 2024, the USFA board rejected a list of motions that Fair Fencing Organization (FFO) are fully in support of. Let’s take a look at these motions.
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Motion: Make Safety, Accessibility, and Financials the paramount factors when selecting a National Tournament Location, remove prioritizing the states that support women’s abortion rights from the consideration
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Board decision: The list of factors is now based on profitability, member experience, cost, travel convenience, square footage requirements, city interest and availability in hosting, and inclusivity which gives preference to sites based on the ratings from LGBTMAP.org, while “deprioritizing” 26 states. In short, Safety is not in the list of considerations. Politically motivated policy of prioritizing the states that support women’s abortion rights is now rebranded as Inclusivity with LGBTMap.
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Motion: Create an all women taskforce to research the impact that transgender athletes competing in the women’s category in Fencing
Board decision: Rejected!
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Motion: Play the national anthem at the start of every day during National Tournaments
Board decision: Rejected! The reason claimed to be operational and should not be a board decision. However, playing national anthem every day during national tournament has been a proposal to USFA national office for three years and there was no response or action.
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Motion: Prohibit political protest on the podium or in the venue, any political protest can be done outside venue
Board decision: Rejected!
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Motion: Replace DEIB as a fulltime position from USA Fencing with the DEIB committee
Board decision: Rejected!
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Proposal: Conduct a survey among all USFA members on the topics above
Board decision: Rejected!
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FFO has cited the reasons to support these motions in its public letter (https://www.fairfencing.org/openlettertousfabdon2024-12-10) that we sent to the USFA board on December 10, 2024.
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From the board decisions, it is evident that the USFA board is putting their political ideology ahead of our members’ interest. Supporting DEIB and transgender is a religion in the mind of our USFA leadership that is imposed on every member without any discussion or study. Its so-called inclusivity does not appear to be applicable to members who have different ideologies from the leadership, even though the latter may constitute the majority of USFA membership. Patriotism is optional! Transparency is selective! Fairness is not a priority!
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FFO has made its position clear that while everyone has its own political standings, the board members should not exercise their voting rights based on their own political preferences and disregard members’ voices. We requested a survey among all USFA members so the USFA leadership can know what the majority of members want. They refused to conduct such a survey. It is also worth noting that currently only four out of the twelve board directors were elected by the USFA members. The rest of the board directors were appointed by the board or selected by the Athlete Council while the general public neither know how those directors were selected/appointed nor what they stand for.
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The recent events have triggered attentions from National medias. At the time of this statement, the following stories were published on the national news.
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USA Fencing Won’t Allow National Anthem, But Has No Problem With Transgenders Ruining Women’s Dreams
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We are glad to see Fencing and the decisions USFA leadership made are now attracting national news’ coverage and awareness. We believe that it is a positive development that more people are paying attention to this sport and the issues USFA is facing. FFO will not be set back by the result of this board meeting. We will stand for what we hold dear in this sport: Fairness, Transparency, Safety, and Professionalism. To that end, we will use all our power and strength bestowed by our thousands of members to overcome any obstacles. More developments are on the way. All USFA members, let’s unite for the greater good of the fencing community and Make Fencing Sane Again!
Fair Fencing Organization