Athlete Lindsay Walter has posted a heartbreaking tale to social media sharing that she recently had an encounter with the ‘bathroom police’ while boarding a plane in the USA.
Walter is a writer and long-distance runner and was on her way to take part in the Chicago marathon when she had an encounter in an airport bathroom. She later poster the details of what had happened to her social media accounts.
It all began when a woman approached her the bathroom while she was washing her hands and began shouting abuse at her.
Alopecia is a medical term used to describe hair loss, which can occur in various forms and degrees. The most common type is alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder where the immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles, leading to patchy hair loss on the scalp and other areas of the body.
This condition can affect individuals of all ages and backgrounds, and its exact cause remains unclear. Walter has been a prominent advocate for people living with the condition.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has previously spoken about how he lives with alopecia totalis which leaves him with little hair on his body. Dutton shared the personal information in 2022 after Labor frontbencher referred to him as looking like Harry Potter villain Voldemort. Plibersek later apologised.
Women who do not meet strict expectations of feminine appearance encountering transphobia is becoming increasingly common as activists campaign against transgender women being allowed to use bathrooms that align with the gender.
Increasingly there are reports of women who are tall, or who have strong jawlines, or come from different ethnicities being challenged.
Last year comedian Mitchell Coombs shared his experience of being attacked in the bathroom of a Sydney pub when a group of men began banging on his cubicle door and shouting transphobic slurs. While in 2018 trans rights advocate Charlotte Clymer shared her experience of security guards making up laws about bathrooms.
Lindsay Walter has written widely about her experiences with alopecia, read her work and listen to her podcast appearances. She’s also fundraising for the Make a Wish Foundation in relation to the 2025 London Marathon.
