TSA in Washington DC - very very professionnal

[charlotte15]

I'm flying to Argentina for my FFS. I was trying to present as male to match my passport, but did not want to go into the xray machine as I'd read a lot of bad things about that. So I say I opt out to the TSA agent.

Then without saying anything she approached me and asked if I prefered "a female or a male agent today". I was like - woa, I'm totally male fail and I started sweating an lot while managing to say "I'd much prefer a female agent, please". I was so shaking!! My shirt is still a bit wet - and I already changed it once!!!

She saw how embarassed I was and said I must have had hurt my knee and so I needed a private screening!! I was so relieved! I must have been visibly very very nervous!!!

She was training 2 other agents, so they also came to watch the private screening, but they were all super nice. I had read on the forum that some agents can be bad. Well, not today, not with me. These ladies were all super professionnal.

[Devlyn]

Good to hear! Glad you were treated professionally. After all, we each pay a portion of their salaries.

Hugs, Devlyn

[.Christy]

I was so scared of the xray machine too the first time i flew as trans. But to my surprise the xray was very basic and only showed like a flat stanly silhouette and only highlighted parts that were questionable in red (metal, weapons, etc.). Ive heard stories of xray scans that were like CT scans and showed everything, so I was glad it's not like that anymore, at least here in los angeles.

[Dena]

They aren't always that way. A few years ago I was flying out of Orange County California. I went through the normal screening (still medal detector) then went to wait for my plane. I saw they were getting ready to board and as I would be the last one to board the plane, I stepped a bit to the side so the early boarders could pass. A 5 foot woman in a security uniform came up to me and ask for my ID.
Options
1. Demand to know why she is running me through the screening process again and miss my plane.
2. Let her have her power trip to prove I was a male.
Well I was a bit of a coward and
3. Let her see my id and watch her confusion and double take when the ID indicates female. She was sure something was wrong but couldn't figure it out. Evil way to get your revenge but I never said I was an angel.


<Race comment removed. Such comments are irrelevant and unwanted>
Cindy
Forum Admin

I do not protest this decision. I wish to add that I was bigoted when I was young but I fixed that problem long before I was able to deal with my gender issues. My mindset is my height, big bone but slim build is detected by people who have reason to be more body aware and after being spotted far to many times for my build only, you develop a 6th sense as to who might pick you out of a crowd.

[Randi]

TSA's current machines, in use a major airports,  are neither a metal detector or an X-Ray machine.

Here how the "AIT" machines work:

http://www.tsa.gov/ait-how-it-works

The "Travel Document Checker" makes sure your boarding pass and ID have the same name and gender.  The Travel Document Checker doesn't care how you are dressed.

The "AIT" scanner only displays a generic avatar with the anomolies showing as yellow patches.

If you refuse to go through the machine you will get a pat down by a TSO who is the gender you present as, or they may ask. Transportation Security Officers have seen everything there is to see, and process hundreds of travelers every working day.

Here is some more information for transgender travelers:

http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/transgender-travelers

 

[.Christy]

^ yes! They were exactly like that.

@charlotte: hopefully you will be able to go through the machine at the TSA checkpoint next time without worrying if it looked like those machines in the link above. 

[iKate]

So the advice that one should just "suck it up and present male" in the other thread is bogus?

[charlotte15]

I can't judge the advice, I can only relate my own experiece.

All I'm saying is that I read the thread carefully, dressed very male, no makup no nothing, yet was addressed by a female TSA agent and everything went well.

Except my long hair which were tied and my boobs that I tried to conceal, I don't think there was anything obvious - except maybe that I had opted out of the xray machine because of what I've read.

Anyway, it all went well so I'll keep opting out of the xray machine, just present in my gender and won't care about what gender my passport has.

I'm now in Sao Paulo, about to go to Argentina and nobody caused me any problem.