Several countries have reportedly issued a warning to their citizens concerning their travel to the USA, because of the way that the government policies have significantly impacted passports, specifically for trans people.
Though these are recent policies that have been made official, the risk for trans people travelling through the airport is certainly not a new thing. Because the technology isn’t that advanced, trans travelers are often required to go through some unnecessary extra screenings.
A prominent reason behind this is that some of the full-body scanners need TSA agents to make a quick decision, concerning the visual appearance, which is the gender of the passenger walking through.
Back in 2022, the Department of Homeland Security proposed that this whole process of scanning people should be changed, especially as these scanners are causing problems for transgender people who, just like others, are trying to catch flights.
When a TSA agent selects the biological sex of a traveler going through the scanner, the device makes some assumptions about the traveler’s gender. To be precise, if the passenger’s body is different from the usual assumptions of the scanner, based on the agent’s selection, then the TSA agents need to give them a pat-down.
Besides going through the TSA regulations at the airport, these additional screenings can certainly be more humiliating, degrading, and even traumatic. As per a recent report from ProPublica, the TSA agents forced a transgender woman to remove her bottom, that too in front of them, for allowing her to go through security.
TSA agents will certainly behave normally toward you, but for some travelers, their bodies alone are enough to make those agents lift the flag to eventually make them go through those additional screenings.
✈️ The @TSA also announced new standards for screening trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming passengers at checkpoints.
Previously, travellers had reported “invasive” airport security. 👇https://t.co/rZqg6ZrEUp
— Openly 🏳️🌈 (@Openly) March 31, 2022
Multiple travelers have gone through these issues where the airport scanner has suspected a proper human being. For example, there are some particular hairstyles like braids and afros, which is predominantly seen among black women, and the scanner has a tendency to trigger false alarms considering those, leading to extra screenings.
Unfortunately, it happens to transgender people as well, and several of them have to come to the airport expecting that they will get an invasive pat-down of their groin area every time they get through security.
There are also instances where trans travelers, upon their identity being revealed, are given a pat down by the agent or ordered to execute the process smoothly, but this also needs them to come out in public, which is equally distressing and dangerous. There are also several trans travelers who refuse to go through a body scan, but it eventually leads to a pat down, which they can’t obstruct.
If the security asks you to go through extra screening, you should also know that if it is being done by someone who has the same sex as you, in private.
In case you’re travelling with a fellow companion, and you can trust him, you can also request that they come with you as a witness. Besides, you have the right to talk with a supervisor, and in any case of mistreatment, you can file a complaint based on the official civil rights and liberties via the TSA website.
