Quote from: Jill F on September 22, 2015, 12:46:52 PM
What I don't understand is why they bother to single us out. How many times have transgender people ever committed an act of terrorism? That's right... NEVER.
Oh, and how many terrorists have the TSA ever caught by doing this?
Can't we just do a quick cost/benefit analysis and abolish the TSA altogether?
That's not really the point. The point is the technology of the scanner can't tell whether the "anatomical anomaly" is a real penis and therefore that she genuinely is just trans, or a disguised lump of plastic explosives made to look like one... in which case she would have been a terrorist trying to pass herself off as trans in order to smuggle plastics explosives onto the plane. Quite a good cover I would imagine... so they are going to single anyone who appears a bit different.
Now you can of course argue that trans people are common enough that they must see them every day, and of course thats correct, but I guess unless I'm missing something, the point is this woman didnt exactly help her cause, because she was offered a pat down search, and even given the choice of which gender she wanted to be searched by, and at that point personally I think any reasonable person would have just made a choice and just let them get on with their job.
I know I'm ultra long term post op and so its possibly a little different, but about 20 years ago in the height of the troubles in northern ireland I once had to submit to a full body cavity search when i was going into a high security area. Now that WAS intimate, and believe me the fact that I was then at least ten years post-op didnt make it any less embarrasing, but I let them get on with it because it was just part of the conditions of what i was doing.
Like I say there may be something I'm missing here, and if so I apologise, but to me it seems as through everyone is making this into a big deal when it seems to me that:
a.) she almost certainly made it worse by refusing to choose, and
b.) this is just part of the horrible world we live in where people do unspeakable things to try and blow up aircraft.
So if you want to be angry with someone, blame the idiots who try to blow every damn thing up every time they dont get their way. The guys doing the searching are in the end just doing their job and trying to keep you safe.
In otherwords don't shoot the messenger. Sorry, correct me if I'm wrong by all means, but thats just the way I see it.
