Transgender woman treated like 'real risk' during TSA airport search

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Transgender woman treated like 'real risk' during TSA airport search

Ellen Brait in New York
Wednesday 23 September 2015 17.09 BST

A transgender woman who says she was subject to a lengthy and humiliating search at Orlando airport has said TSA agents were “treating me like I was a real risk”.

Shadi Petosky, a writer and producer, told the Guardian that her crotch was highlighted on a screen following her body scan, she was continuously asked whether she was a man or a woman, she was asked to go back through the scanner with the guard identifying her as male instead of female, she was detained and left alone in a separate room, her luggage was unpacked and searched, and she was patted down twice. In addition her hands were swabbed and a bomb expert went through her belongings after a trace of explosives was detected. The entire process took approximately 40 minutes. No explosives were found.

“During the second pat-down, I just lost it and started crying,” Petosky said. “I just felt distraught that we have to go through this sort of stuff, just standing there as someone puts their hands all over my body.”

The Transportation Security Administration disputes her account.

A spokesman for the TSA, Mike England, said a review of the incident – including examination of CCTV “and other available information” – showed that “our officers followed TSA’s strict guidelines”.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/23/transgender-woman-tsa-search-airport-security

[HassleCat]

1. That's TSA

I worked for TSA at Dulles, and I don't think we had any problems with trans people. There were a couple trans women who we saw on a weekly basis, and we never even looked twice at them.

On the other hand, comma and pause, we were giving diabetics the third degree when they had visible insulin pumps. They had to be patted, swabbed, luggage searched, the whole deal. If I spotted somebody with a pump, I would whisper to them to tuck it inside their clothing to avoid the hassle. The policy was actually changed due to pressure from the employees. We had this internal network called the Idea Factory, where we could communicate with the big brains at HQ about pretty much anything. So we went on the attack concerning the insulin pump issue, and bombarded HQ with messages explaining how useless and intrusive the process was. It took six months of constant complaining, but we finally got the procedure changed.

[longship]

2. Wow! Informative post.

R&K for this response alone.