TSA: Trans women have “anomalies”
Comments (7) The TSA speakers just finished, and I’m tuning out the Assistant Secretary for Aging (who I’m sure is very lovely) to type this up before my anger begins to dissipate. I dislike the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). I dislike the creepily-named Department of Homeland Security (DHS). I went into the TSA’s presentation with a huge chip on my shoulder, but I think my skepticism was born out.
New AIT screen
The speaker, Stephanie Stoltzfus, from the TSA’s Office of Civil Rights and Liberties, External Compliance and Public Outreach Division (phew, a mouthful) began by discussing Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), and enhanced pat-down procedures. But I’ll get that to a bit. First, I want to talk about the new software for the AIT systems. It would highlight “potential threat items or anomalies and indicate their location on a generic outline of a person that will appear on a monitor attached to the AIT unit”” (Ms. Stolzfus’s words). That’s the image on the right. No more ‘naked’ images from the AIT? Awesome!
Except those two buttons on the upper right of the screen, one blue and one pink. Screeners need to choose whether the person their screening is male (blue) or female (pink) based purely on their presentation. Someone in the audience reasonably asked what would happen if a trans woman, with a penis, was scanned as female.
Ms. Stolzfus said they had checked for that very thing in the current round of testing. “The reality is an anomaly will come up if the individual appears to be female – is female – and has parts that may not be expected, additional screening will be necessary.” Well, that’s just lovely, isn’t it?
This is why I am not flying right now. This is why I took the train to DC. This, in my mind, justifies and confirms all of my worries and fears and dislikes of the TSA. My body is not anomalous. To say otherwise is humiliating and, quite frankly, offensive. What happened to the United States I grew up in believing in, not the reality but the idealistic goal that “all men are created equal”? I know it never really existed, but a girl can hope, right? The way the TSA operates, the way travelers readily and even eagerly give up their personal integrity and body rights for supposed safety, disappoints, offends, and disgusts me.
UPDATE: After a discussion with a friend, I wanted to clarify something. I acknowledge that my body is in the minority, compared to most folks out there. I’m not really arguing that. Likewise, I admit that the TSA will probably take the position that – in the interest of security – the ends justify the means. But if that’s they’re attitude, they need to know something: Any way in which trans folks are treated differently, which this scan seems to do, is humiliating. It makes me feel degraded, and like I’m considered less valid of a person than non-trans folks. My guess? They’ll shrug and say, “Sorry, but for security reasons this is how it needs to be.” But right now it wasn’t clear that they were aware of the casual and seemingly inconsequential way in which the TSA is dehumanizing trans folks.
Themocracy