When Shadi Petosky arrived at the airport in Orlando, Florida, on September 21st, the last thing she was expecting was to be detained and humiliated by Transportation Security Administration agents concerned that her genitals might pose a security threat. She was a frequent flier and never ran into any problems.
But this time, the body scanners found an anatomical “anomaly” near Petosky’s groin. Petosky is transgender, and has not had gender confirmation surgery. Despite her attempts to explain the situation to agents, they outed her in public, then took her to a private room where they interrogated her for 40 minutes, subjected her to two pat-downs, went through her luggage, and caused her to miss her flight. Despite repeated requests, she was unable to speak to anyone at the airport trained in transgender issues.
Sadly, Ms. Petosky’s experience isn't unusual. The fact that is that trans people have been reporting issues with the TSA for years. Last May, Al Jazeera reported that trans passengers are routinely singled out in TSA screenings and sometimes even forced to remove prosthetic devices by agents -- a clear violation of the TSA’s own policies.
The TSA has already investigated the incident and claims that the agents involved did not violate any policies. If it’s true that this kind of demeaning treatment of trans passengers is allowed under current rules, they need to be changed.
In an interview with Salon, Petosky explained: “The TSA has to work with trans groups to come up with clear policies for trans and gender-nonconforming people. Having a TSA agent look at somebody and then press a pink or blue button to determine their sex doesn’t seem like a very advanced or good system. They have to work on that. There’s no reason that if I walk through and they guess and press the pink button, that makes me liable for not being the type of body they’re expecting.”
Please sign this petition demanding that the TSA take action to better train their agents and outline clear policies when it comes to interacting with trans passengers. Use the hashtag #TravelingWhileTrans to spread the word!
Dear Mr. Neffenger,
The outcry over how Ms. Shadi Petosky was treated by TSA agents in Orlando, Florida, should serve as a wakeup call for the leadership of the agency. Best estimates place the transgender population at 700,000 people in the US -- and TSA agents need to be properly trained on how to treat them with respect and dignity.
While many trans individuals are able to travel without incident each day, horror stories like Ms. Petosky’s show that the response of TSA agents to trans passengers may vary wildly from airport to airport. We, the undersigned ask that you please work with LGBT advocacy groups to outline a formal policy for dealing with trans and gender nonconforming passengers agency-wide.
Thank you.
