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    SchweepsCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:16pm

    By all means, there should be more sensitivity training. The world would be a better place if everyone were more sensitive. THAT BEING SAID, some of these complaints seem like they are reaching for outrage where it's just people trying to do their job. And do I understand why people who are constantly presented with real, intense discrimination and mistreatment might be especially sensitive to perceived issues? Of course. But I don't really understand what the solution is for certain of these incidents.

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      ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILDSchweeps
      5/27/14 4:42pm

      How about, get rid of the useless fucking body scanners that don't actually make us safer? Seems like a pretty good solution to me.

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      beletseriSchweeps
      5/27/14 4:51pm

      I think the obvious solution in this situation would be some sort of identifier for trans individuals so that we can pick them out in a crowd.

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    TheDrDonna, Paid Shillary Killinton SupporterCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:50pm

    It's just SO AWESOME how many kindhearted individuals have taken time out of what I am sure are their very busy schedules to tell trans folks that they aren't being discriminated against and that they don't need to concern themselves with the horrible treatment they've suffered at the hands of government agents. We just have the best commenters here.

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      titania126TheDrDonna, Paid Shillary Killinton Supporter
      5/27/14 5:12pm

      See, to me, discrimination implies some kind of hatred or mistrust towards a particular group. What I think most people are responding to is that in many cases, this sounds more like basic stupidity/lack of education. To get furious that a low-wage federal security employee who holds a job that doesn't require much education is committing the offense of misgendering someone, is, I think, a significant overestimation of how much the general population knows about trans people and trans etiquette. I don't know if those TSA officers hate trans people and they're misgendering them or asking to scan their strap-ons out of a desire to make that individual uncomfortable (discrimination) or if they're trying to express a thing they're not used to talking about as accurately as they can with a limited vocabulary and to do their job by scanning an object they don't recognize even though it should be relatively obvious what it is (ignorance).

      Should this be a required and regular part of TSA agent training? Yes. Should we assume that these TSA officers are bigots and perverts rather than garden-variety idiots with a basic, binary understanding of gender like millions of other people? I would say not.

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      jeeberstitania126
      5/27/14 5:20pm

      See, to me, discrimination implies some kind of hatred or mistrust towards a particular group.

      Your interpretation is not how these terms are commonly understood. Prejudice is hatred or mistrust. Discrimination is treating someone differently because of group membership, and does not have to be ill-intentioned:

      treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.

      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrim...

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    ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILDCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:42pm

    It's unfortunate that these people were treated poorly for being trans, rather than too fat to fly... then maybe some of you morons would actually give a shit.

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      kabrisketʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILD
      5/27/14 5:41pm

      (singing)

      You. Are. Someone who I love. Oh. You. Are. Someone who I like!

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      kabrisketʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILD
      5/27/14 5:47pm

      If we keep replying, we can make this one of the popular posts, right?

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    Yoga Nerd, Maybe DeadCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 5:01pm

    The passenger presented himself as female so the RPD was conducted by a female LTSO.

    Is this wrong? I'm honestly asking, who should have conducted the search? I would think if you identify as a woman, a woman would be the appropriate person to conduct the search?

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      ZuiyoMaruYoga Nerd, Maybe Dead
      5/27/14 5:12pm

      The problem is not that a female officer did the search, but that the report consistently refers to the passenger - a trans woman - as male.

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      kabrisketYoga Nerd, Maybe Dead
      5/27/14 5:40pm

      I had to read twice. The bad part of that sentence is "himself" and not the valid choice of the female LTSO (WTF is that? btw)

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    wadeinthewaterCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:18pm

    I always get pulled for extra screening at the airport. They say it's because of the underwire on the vessel that keeps my annoyingly large bust under control. It could be because I'm black, or just the TSA all over the country has an obsession with big bewbs. It's sad that people come to expect being felt up and borderline molested in order to travel.

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      Squadoodleswadeinthewater
      5/27/14 5:11pm

      I have really big boobs too, and fortunately this has never been a problem for me, but I have been asked to take down my hair and let them run their fingers through it and when I was traveling with a broken leg, they asked me to take off my cast and put it through the x-ray. The cast. On my broken leg.

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      titania126wadeinthewater
      5/27/14 5:14pm

      I have big boobs and I keep my underwire bra in my purse until after I've gone through security. I wear one of those bra-top dresses which barely handles the situation, but it's fine for the 10 steps I have to take to get through the scanner. Just not worth it to me. I've never been stopped since I started doing that.

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    Hyperbolic TelephoneCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:59pm

    I think this is one of those cases that's harder for a non-transgender to understand. Like, I purposefully choose clothes that will get me through security faster—no bra with an underwire, no jewelry I can't at least get on and off quickly, shoes that are easy to get on/off. If I had a false leg, I'd still wear it because I need it to walk. But even though mentally I know that a transgender person's strap on or binder is necessary for them, my initial emotional response is bewilderment that they wouldn't just forgo it for the plane ride if they knew it was going to cause so much grief—and you have to know, since the underwear bomber meant even our pants aren't sacred. I'm not saying its right. Are they forcing the passengers to remove strap-ons in line, like they did with that cancer survivor's prosthetic breasts? And false legs/arms have been removed out in public, too. I sympathize with the TSA in that I can see how a prosthetic would be a good place to smuggle something on an plane so they feel compelled to check it, but their track record for dealing with prosthetics is terrible across the board, and clearly their policy needs revising.

    Serious question: if a transgender female still has male genitals, is sexual harassment to force a female agent to pat down that area if she doesn't wish to touch a penis? Is it one of those instances where we say to the agent "This is now part of your job and you have to do it or get fired" or say to the passenger "you should have expected this when you came to the airport". Neither of these seems okay, and I have no idea what the solution would be other than to get back to those good ol' days where security didn't grab your crotch. (I got some TSA-crotch poking last time I refused the scanners, I'm assuming they'd give the same treatment to someone who security thinks is male). Are TSA agents even instructed on the proper way to pat-down that area of the opposite gender?

    At any rate, flying is terrible.

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      HermioneStrangerHyperbolic Telephone
      5/27/14 6:24pm

      TSA pat-downs are normally performed by members of the same gender, but not always, and it is usually for the comfort of the passengers, not the security agents. If you aren't comfortable patting down a clothed penis, don't sign up to be someone whose job is to pat people down.

      In general, if you're trying to be more sympathetic to trans women, your reaction should not be, "is the mere existence of trans women, who are just trying to go about their day, potentially raping a cis woman?"

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      Hyperbolic TelephoneHermioneStranger
      5/27/14 7:21pm
      "potentially raping?"

      wow you sure are putting extremely vile words in my mouth while you deliberately misunderstand me.

      I was asking, because I genuinely do not know, how the TSA trained their agents for genital-area patdowns and wondering if (because I honestly don't know!) they are even trained for opposite gender patdowns. I also wondered how their policy effects the people on both sides—the passenger and the agent. Is it so inconceivable that, as a passenger is usually more comfortable being pat down by a member of their own gender, the agent having to do the patting would have similar feelings? And if the agent is uncomfortable—do those feelings have merit in their particular line of work? For example, I think that if you're a pharmacist, filling morning-after pills are part of your job. But some lawmakers disagree. How much of a person's comfort is negotiable in the workplace—particularly a workplace where, in the case of the TSA, touching people is part of the job description?

      Look at the reports in the article:

      "The passenger presented himself as female so the RPD was conducted by a female LTSO."

      okay, the passenger here was rudely misgendered, but the agent at least tried to implement the policy directly

      He was speaking with LTSO telling him that he wants to be screened by a female and identifies his self [sic] as a female. He also stated that if he was to be screened by a male he would feel violated. I explained to the male passenger that he would have to be screened by a male.

      This one is worse, because it denies the passenger's preferred gender for herself, and denies her her right to be screen by an agent of her preferred gender. But why was one passenger permitted a patdown by a same sex agent while another was not? Is this a case of one agent simply not believing trans is 'a thing', being deliberately hateful, or simply someone who is ignorant of trans issues trying to implement the TSA's gender policy to the extent of his understanding? But if two agents have a different understanding of the rules, than the rules clearly aren't being presented very clearly.

      So the question comes back to how the agents are trained, and how the agents themselves respond to the training they are getting. Clearly no one is telling them how to write their reports with sensitivity. And what about trans passengers that do not have government issued IDs that match their gender? As a federal arm, how are agents trained to deal with unique passengers on a case by case basis?

      I'm asking about because I am curious about the TSA's workplace policies and training methods. The TSA has a long, long list of problems when it comes to finding the line between security and respecting people's privacy and bodies. This is not just a trans issue, though it is an issue that effects trans people in specificly hurtful ways. Figuring out the TSA's policies, training methods, and the agents' place in their implementation can be helpful in figuring out where things are going wrong.

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    Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the SnarkCallie Beusman
    5/27/14 4:42pm

    Not to be the "OMG TSA IS EVIL" type, but...

    Seriously? We're surprised?

    Every goddamn story about TSA is how miserably stupid it is. Of course they don't know how to handle transgendered people properly. They can't handle ANYONE properly.

    Security theater is truly a stage for the folly of life.

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      BrianGriffinCallie Beusman
      5/27/14 4:29pm

      It's unfortunate that anyone has to go through something that they find humiliating or demeaning. BUT, it should be realized, that the average person on the street has VERY little idea of what is or is not offensive to a trans person. I try very hard to get the terminology correct and still often fail. Many folks I know don't try and still find trans individuals to be akin to sideshow performers; they don't understand why I'm trying to correct their inaccuracies and bigotry.

      My point: cut the TSA some slack. Yeah, they probably took some actions against individuals who are trans that may have been unnecessary, but mostly because they didn't know any better. Both reports above seem to be written with as much respect as possible AND with a deference to the TSA agent making a tough call on the spot, in light of the regulations they have to abide by.

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        LatticeworkCallie Beusman
        5/27/14 4:55pm

        "Troublingly, the logic of a strict restrictive gender binary is literally built into the system"

        Well, not really. The system distinguishes between biological sexes. It would be nice if the machine could distinguish between genders, but that would involve checking non-physical markers for which no scanners currently exist. Very unfortunate.

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          KaizykatLatticework
          5/27/14 5:34pm

          There are people who are neither biological male nor female, though. I'd hate to see how they're treated by the TSA, considering that they get suspicious if your clothing doesn't match your parts.

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        DarkTowerLateArrivalCallie Beusman
        5/27/14 4:11pm

        You can tell in both of the reports that the person thought they were being all sorts of proper and sensitive in their terminology.

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