News (USA)

Anti-trans woman with no hair devastated when she faced anti-trans harassment herself

She was accused of being a man while using the restroom shortly after she accused trans women of being "men."
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transgender, bathroom bill, Kansas, Wichita, restroom, toilet, disabled son, mother, Karen Wild, Ellis Dunville
A women's restroom Photo: Shutterstock

A woman who opposes trans equality got attention this week for complaining on social media after she got harassed by someone who thought that she was transgender.

Lindsay Walter, who posts on X as Lindsay Hannah, describes herself as a runner, writer, and alopecia advocate. The 33-year-old, who is currently preparing for the 2025 London Marathon and raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, frequently posts about living with the condition, which causes hair loss.  

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“It hit me so hard because when I was a kid, the one thing that was the biggest trigger and ultimate gut punch was when someone would call me a boy,” she told Yahoo! Life last year. “Because I didn’t have hair people would [say], ‘Oh, you’re a boy.’ And so for me, that’s the one thing that just hurts me the most.”

Over the weekend, Walter was in Chicago for the Chicago Marathon. On Friday morning, she posted about an incident that occurred in an airport bathroom, where she was misgendered and harassed.

“I was washing my hands in the bathroom and this woman is staring at me and shouts (and I do mean shout) ‘you’re disgusting!’” Walter wrote.

According to Walter, the woman followed her out of the bathroom and continued to shout at her that she was “disgusting for being in the women’s bathroom” and that it was “for women” as others stared.  

“I calmly say, ‘I have Alopecia. I am a woman, but I just don’t have hair,’” Walter recalled. Walter wrote that the woman backed away, saying, “Whatever, just get away.”

“I am sad, mad, embarrassed, heartbroken,” Walter wrote of the encounter. “I always try to see the good in people and extend grace but I have finding it really hard right now.”

Walter received an outpouring of sympathy from folks on X, particularly from trans people and LGBTQ+ allies who pointed out that what happened to her was an example of how transphobia puts all women at risk.

“Shocking,” wrote British broadcaster India Willoughby, who is trans. “So sorry Lindsay xxx.”

However, many commenters quickly resurfaced a recent post in which Walter expressed her opposition to trans women, who she described as “men,” participating in women’s sports — apparently after having been misgendered herself while in Chicago to participate in a sporting event.

“I don’t even have all the right emotions to convey here but I am beyond hurt and disgusted by being told ‘you’re the problem with sports. men [sic] should not be claiming to be female and competing with them when they’re male,’” she wrote on September 29. “Just because I am bald doesn’t make me not female.”

“And yes,” she added in a subsequent post, “I 100% agree males should not be playing against females.”

Responses ranged from people claiming that what happened to Walter was a direct result of transphobic views like her own to others saying they simply struggled to sympathize with her in light of her previous comment.

Walter seems to have since deleted her September 29 post and has not commented on the accusations of transphobia beyond an oblique October 12 post in which she expressed gratitude to “everyone who has been so kind and supportive.”

“Your empathy and compassion means the world to me. You’ve made these few days better,” she wrote. “And for the continued negativity and out of pocket comments just know I am not going to argue or reply.”

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