Transgender Ramapo College swimmer who's winning women's competitions previously described Lia Thomas as 'an inspiration'

Ramapo College swimmer Meghan Cortez-Fields previously competed on the men's swimming team but is now competing on the women's team.

In an article last year, the Ramapo News reported that "Cortez is a transgender woman who uses she/they pronouns and is a member of the men's swim team."

The outlet reported that Cortez would tape his chest because using a swim top would disqualify him from participating in men's events. "I choose to tape my breasts because I feel it is very uncomfortable and kind of dehumanizing to swim without a top," Cortez said, according to the outlet.

The swimmer described former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas as "an inspiration." Thomas, a man who identifies as a woman, earned widespread criticism while competing in women's swimming.

"[Thomas] is an inspiration to me in that way, but also I felt so bad for her because I know exactly what she was going through," Cortez noted, according to the outlet. "Even going into this season, I had a fear of succeeding, because I don't want what happened to her to happen to me."

Apparently, Cortez-Fields is now competing on the women's swim team, because a recent post about women's swimming on ramapoathletics.com indicates that at a recent meet, Cortez-Fields "won the 100-yard butterfly with a new program record time of 57.22 seconds," and "won the 200-yard IM." The swimmer placed second in the 200-yard butterfly, the post notes.

"Those who choose to remain blind to the injustice of allowing mediocre male athletes to become record-breaking female athletes are either incompetent or misogynists. There is no in between anymore," Riley Gaines told Fox News. "Women are being asked to smile and step aside and allow these men onto our teams all the while stripping us of opportunities, privacy and safety."

"The incident at Ramapo College shouldn't be a shock to anyone considering we've seen virtually the same story time and time again with no people in leadership positions willing to take a stand for women," Gaines noted, according to the outlet.

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