Woman with alopecia left in tears after being verbally assaulted in bathroom over gender identity
Lindsay Walter is a marathon runner who shares her experience of having alopecia. (X/@lindSAYhanNAH3)
A marathon runner with alopecia was left “embarrassed and heart-broken” after being verbally abused in an airport toilet by a woman who thought she was transgender.
Lindsay Walter, from Charlotte, North Carolina, is preparing for next year’s London Marathon, in aid of Make-A-Wish UK, which grants wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.
In May last year, Walter told Yahoo Life that she had struggled with the hair loss disease alopecia universalis since she was two years old. She opened up after someone commenting on her marathon photo said she looked “like a sick, ugly man”.
Alopecia universalis is a condition that can result in the loss of all hair on the scalp and body. According to Medical News Today, the condition affects about one in every 4,000 people in the UK, while in the US, fewer than 200,000 people have it.
‘Sad, mad, embarrassed and heart-broken’
Walter took to X/Twitter on Friday (11 October) to say that the woman shouted, “You’re disgusting”, as the runner was washing her hands. Walter left but was followed out where she was surrounded by more people.
“The woman began shouting ‘that I am disgusting for being in the women’s bathroom and how it is for women’,” Walter said. “I calmly [said]: “I have alopecia. I am a woman, but I just don’t have hair”. She [backed] away and [said], ‘Whatever, just get away’.”
Walter was left in tears, “sad, mad, embarrassed, heart-broken”, adding: “I always try to see the good in people and extend grace but I am finding it really hard right now.”
Comments under the post, which has been viewed more than 10 million times, offered her support. “Sending you love and light. So sorry you had to face this,” LGBWithTheT wrote.
Other people related to her experience, with women who have faced cancer saying they had been subjected to “looks of disgust” and grim comments just because they had lost their hair.
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