One week ago, President Trump, surrounded by young girls and women of all ages, signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.

The order called no men and women sports.

At the signing, the president said the, quote, Radical Left has waged an all out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.

And that with this executive order, the war on women's sports is over.

Well, the very next day, the NCAA, which oversees college sports, changed its policies to align with the executive order.

And yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education asked the NCAA to strip the titles, records and awards from transgender athletes that it says have been misappropriated to biological, male and female sports.

Well, here in new Jersey, Meghan Cortez is a transgender athlete who competed at Ramapo College and made headlines when she broke a pair of women's swimming records.

She joins me now to talk about these policy changes.

Megan, thanks so much for joining us tonight.

I have to ask you, as a transgender athlete yourself, what do you make of these policy changes coming from Washington and now the NCAA?

I find them truly disheartening.

You know, not only is it affecting trans women, but kind of the idea that people are going to have to choose young kids, you know, going into young adult life or have to choose whether to be who they are or do something that they love.

And that's very disheartening and sad.

But this is not an unexpected of the Trump administration and of Republican policies.

It's just sad to see it come true.

I want to talk about your experience as a swimmer.

You did swim for the men's team at Ramapo for three years.

And then you transitioned to the women's team?

Yes.

You received some national criticism, for breaking records in the women's, category.

Do you understand or give any credence to the argument that a person assigned male at birth has a biological advantage, over a person who was assigned female at birth if they've transitioned after puberty?

I think that the science, you know, has yet to be decided, as there's not a lot of research on this, but based off from what I understand is going through the requirements that the NCAA and other organizations have set, which is a year of hormones.

Under a certain level of testosterone, your body completely changes when you go on hormone therapy.

And that includes is your muscle density, your bone density.

Tons of biochemical changes to wear that you're quite similar to those of your peers once you transition.

So I do not think that is true.

Now, what did that testing look like for you?

For me, it involved a year of getting both work done every month, as well as maintaining, you know, injections, which I already wanted to do, but I wanted to make sure to do so, in order to get that testosterone level and requirement met.

As we've covered here on our new show before, there are there even Democrats in new Jersey who have said that they support this move?

In new Jersey schools.

Obviously there's federal law now, or executive order at least.

But what what would your message be to politicians here in new Jersey?

I mean, if you just look at the issue as it is, it doesn't affect many people, and it's a very small group of people that it does affect.

And it's not making any meaningful change in the sense that I think it's restricting access, and more so as to what they're able to do as we saw over the Olympics.

And that was really disheartening to see as well, because that hurts all women, not just trans women.

And I think we're gonna find that come true as we focus on these very minor issues, instead of the actual real problems that affects women's sports.

Make the case that this affects all women and not just trans women.

Yeah.

It's been shown kind of over the past, like decade ish, that cis women who look more masculine.

We saw this with Serena Williams when she won and people would call her a man.

It typically affects women of color, and more so as, people cannot believe that women can do great feats of strength or athleticism.

And it kind of creates this part of you that women are docile, weak, and, cannot do great, amazing things.

And that's not true.

What what do you make and have you heard any clarity in terms of what it would look like, to ensure that these regulations are followed?

What does that mean for people competing in women's sports?

It you know, it looks like many things there's testing involved as well as, you know, figuring out what's going on.

I think it's a case by case basis.

It truly just depends on each person.

But I would say the regulations that have been in place, they work.

They've been working for the past 20 years, and no one has really cared until a recent, just really quickly, what is swimming mean to you?

What did swimming mean to you?

Swimming is my entire world.

I did it for 15 plus years.

It's kind of my earliest memories and my happiest moments have been swimming.

It's been there for me when I didn't really have much, and I was struggling with who I was.

And to finally have who I was kind of exists in the same space as something that I have loved my entire life.

That was probably the happiest moment ever.

Was that last year swimming, getting to enjoy being me and getting to enjoy swimming as well.

You are still in school?

Yes.

You're pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Purdue University, but I guess no time for swimming anymore.

That is true.

There's no time for competitive swimming, nor can my body maintain that anymore.

It's been going on way too long.

All right, Meghan Cortez, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and your experience with us.

Thank you.