Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, I remember the "stranger danger" movement. It told us kids not to talk to people we didn't know, not to accept rides from strangers, and to ignore requests to help find a "lost puppy" or child. In short, we were supposed to trust our gut and if something didn't feel right, to remove ourselves from the situation.
That came in handy when one morning, at the bus stop, a guy in an old sedan pulled up and said he'd give us all a ride to school. I yelled for him to go away, blocked the other kids from approaching the car, and he drove off. As soon as the bus came, we told the driver, who reported it to the school, who reported it to the police.
These days, however, we're telling our children — especially our daughters — to no longer trust their gut and to forget "stranger danger," lest they be perceived as transphobic.
That's why a 53-year-old man in Canada named Nicholas J. Cepeda, who goes by the name Melody Wiseheart, is allowed to swim and change with young girls in swimming competitions. He identifies as a young girl, and that's enough to give him access to locker rooms and swimming pools.
A 53 year old man, Melody Wiseheart has been competing against young girls for years in Canada's swimming competitions. He is allowed to watch and undress with the girls (as young as 8) because he identifies as a young girl. https://t.co/yGydNrppOR
— Maureen🐶🏃♀️🏊♀️🌞 KPSS (@MaureenSaysNo) August 20, 2026
Here's more from the 2023 New York Post report:
A 50-year-old transgender swimmer was allowed to compete against teenage girls at an event in Canada — with horrified parents building a makeshift tent out of towels to shield girls as young as 8 in the locker room.
Melody Wiseheart, who once competed under the name Nicholas Cepeda, sparked outrage while competing during the Trojan Cup in Barrie, Ontario.
“The girls were terrified,” an unidentified parent of one of the teenagers told the Toronto Sun of having to share a locker room with the much older trans swimmer.
“It’s all so confusing for the kids,” another parent said. “No one is comfortable.
...
“In partnership with Swimming Canada, Swim Ontario has a robust system of policies, procedures and rules that support our member clubs in providing a competitive experience that is safe, welcoming and inclusive for all participants,” the organization said.
It noted that Swim Ontario “investigated concerns related to an adult competing against swimmers aged 12 – 14 during a recent competition hosted by the Richmond Hill Aquatic Club” and determined that “RHAC acted appropriately, in hosting the competition.”
The organization explained that athletes are seeded by entry time, regardless of their age,
Even though the original story is three years old, he is still competing against girls as recently as April. He's also a professor at York University in Toronto, where he teaches in psychology (oh, the irony) and health.
This is eerily reminiscent of Richard Cox in Virginia, who is only marginally better than Wiseheart in that Cox doesn't compete against girls in swimming matches. Cox just keeps a list of children's swim classes on his phone so he can invade female locker rooms and expose himself to women and girls.
Of course, parents who did their job to protect their daughters were the ones kicked from the match, not the perverted and abusive man who is exposing himself to girls and watching girls change in locker rooms.
For years, I grew up listening to the Left and feminists warn me about the dangers of the patriarchy. They told me my grandfathers, my father, my uncles, and my brother were the problem. They said marriage was an oppressive, abusive institution I must avoid at all costs. Dating men was dangerous; all men are rapists, etc., etc.
I never bought into that. The "patriarchy" — as they described it — stopped existing long before I was born, if it even existed at all. But then they turned around and decided that a small group of mentally ill, sexually deviant men suddenly had more rights than women and girls. Isn't that the very definition of the "patriarchy" they once warned us about?
Instead of stopping this, the Left panders to it. I think specifically of guys like Seth Moulton, the Democrat who once said (and rightly so) that he didn't want men competing against his daughters. For that flagrant act of fatherhood, Moulton has been self-flagellating in penance, including apologizing to the trans community for hurting their feelings.
Way to throw your daughters under the bus, Seth.
When does this stop? When will we have the courage to stop allowing our women and girls to not only be stripped of competition slots, medals, and championships but to stop letting them be sexually exploited by so-called "transwomen"?
