Traveling While Trans: The False Promise of Better Treatment

http://www.transadvocate.com/the-tsa-a-binary-body-system-in-practice_n_15540.htm

January 3, 2016
Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello

Back in 2012, I wrote about the problems I regularly encountered as a trans person when going through TSA security screening at airports.

Since that time, we've been promised, much has changed. The TSA has formally stated that it will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity. Passengers are to be screened based upon their gender presentation. Any pat-downs are to be conducted by TSA agents whose gender matches the passenger's presented gender, no matter what gender marker is listed on the passenger's government ID. The agents on the floor operating the body scanner now just see a body outline icon marked with any areas of "anomaly" on their screen, instead of an actual image of the details of the passenger's anatomy, so privacy should be protected. The TSA has promised that the bad old days of trans people being harassed and humiliated by its agents are in the past, and we have reached the era of enlightenment.

That would be nice.

Unfortunately, what now happens in practice is another matter altogether.

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Chilling article about the author's experience with the TSA.