If the agent has been doing that job for any period of time at all I'm sure they've seen hundreds of trans folk walking through. I'd imagine it's not malicious, just their job.
My girlfriend lost a ton of weight at one point, and when she had loose skin she had to get patted too. In our most recent vacation she walked right on through and we both looked at each other like we won the lottery haha
My junk has been groped in front of an entire busy line of people for being “an anomaly,” aka not having the dick they expected. Not brushed with the back of the hand, groped as in molested.
At an airport in Berlin a woman TSA agent tried to send me to one of her male colleagues by saying something I understood as "that is a man", I just politely told her no I'm a woman and she was vexed lmao
Yeah, I probably shouldn't speak on issues that I'm not familiar with- so sorry about that. I was just trying to provide the perspective that it might not always be malicious. I'm sure y'all already know that though
Hi there. Let me provide some perspective that you don’t know. This does happen, almost every time I get on a plane. I have been grabbed many times and inappropriately touched and showed off in a public setting because of it.
It is humiliating. It is dehumanizing. It is demoralizing.
There is no scenario where it doesn’t feel malicious and just a huge invasion of my personal privacy and agency. These machines are awful at what they do. On top of their shitty equipment, TSA has a failure rate of over 80%, so I doubt it’s worth caressing my dick and balls just to test if I have an IED in my pants as terrorists famously do. (/s)
Every time I fly in America, I am treated like cattle. Like a freak. I am never treated kindly during these interactions. Only receive barked orders. I’m so tired of it. I’m so tired of America. I’m so tired of people like you trying to “yes and” your way to a positive spin on this scenario, because guess what buddy? They’re more than happy to fuck over some trans people and humiliate them in public. They can’t wait till we’re eradicated and gone.
So yes, you’re right, you shouldn’t speak on issues you know nothing about.
You don't serve your cause well by showing such needless animosity to someone who agrees with you. My girlfriend's loose skin wasn't dangerous either, but she also went through it. Are they loose-skin-phobic? Maybe, but that's probably not what was happening.
You have every right to be on high alert since many people treat you unfairly, but lashing out at me isn't going to fix any of that. We're on the same side of the issue.
Did... did you just tell a minority who just explained their frustration with systemic discrimination to stop being frustrated?
I'm sorry if trans people aren't sunshines and rainbows while undergoing a genocide. Good to know that that's what we've got to do in order to be considered human enough to have emotions.
You can be frustrated. But don't name call and make direct and pointed attacks at someone who actually does care about your wellbeing. Save that for the people who are actively wishing you harm.
Your frustration is not an excuse for verbal abuse.
To be specific, the machine basically has a "man" setting and a "woman" setting. Depending on the machine it's often literally just a button pressed by someone on the other side who's guessing.
"Man mode" expects penis but no boobs. "Woman mode" expects boobs but no penis. If you're trans it's pretty much going off no matter what they press unless you've had bottom surgery.
Does this machine and these settings make you safer? No! It does fuck all and catches no one! So basically they've accidentally made a bloody transgender detector they operate for no reason whatsoever but to look like they're doing something. Great 😂
So if I’ve had top surgery but no penis, and have an IUD, would it flag my vaginal area due to lack of penis or IUD? My local airport flagged me on my last flight, my returning airport didn’t. Wondering if it was the wrong setting or IUD.
I think it varies by TSA agent - I’ve had it flag sometimes, and the agent goes “oh, you’re fine.” And other times they do want to do a pat down because of “something wrong” in that area (no iud here, I think they just assumed male at first, ended up getting patted down by a woman though)
I’ve been told by TSA that an IUD shouldn’t flag but it’s consistent enough I call bullshit on that.
I’m gonna have to do more experiments. When I flew out for vacation I didn’t talk much at all (I have a very feminine voice) but got flagged. When I returned I was talking more and didn’t get flagged.
i'm not too familiar with the system itself but others in this same thread are reporting that IUDs can get flagged.
i'd imagine the "woman" setting can handle a lack of boobs, especially cause according to also some other posts on here, it can also ping you if you have boobs "too big" according to whatever metric it uses internally lol
That is not exactly true. The machine is not set for a specific sex. They only choose a sex when the scan falls. Which does not happen often. Also there is never just one person in thr box and they are never sitting down. Its always a female and male officer so this comic is lying to make the situation creepier. The male officer is not the one clearing the female passenger
The last time I (as a trans woman) went through airport security, I got stopped at one of these scanners, and there was only a male officer present. When I explained that I was trans, he said I could go through again to be scanned as a man if I wanted, which I agreed to, but it still wouldn’t let me through, so he had to feel up my chest to make sure it was just boobs and not a bomb or something, and then let me through.
Presumably if I had insisted on being scanned as a woman, he would have had to feel up my crotch to confirm it was just a penis rather than a bomb down there, but I figured letting him tell the machine I was a man would be the less humiliating option. At no point was I offered the option to have a female officer grope me instead, though maybe I would have if I had signed up for the penis groping rather than the boob groping. In any case, yes, it really is as creepy and stressful as this comic implies.
Just for the record, as former TSA, (unless the changed it now in the you know who days) it is explicitly stated in the SOP that the officer doing the pat down is suppose to match the passengers outward appearing and identifying gender, that TSA officer was massively overstepping and you shouldn’t have been in that scenario. Fuck that guy. Fucking creep.
If they actually did change it now thanks to Agent Orange? That’s fucking horrifying. Y’all deserve better than the country is giving you.
This was in 2019, so it's possible that it was actually before that policy existed. Honestly, I don't hold anything against the guy who groped me; he was awkward and apologetic about it and didn't seem to be enjoying himself. I got the sense that neither of us had a better option available in that scenario and that the situation was mostly created by the technology itself and the fact that no one involved in its creation either realized or cared what it would mean putting innocent trans people through.
Ah, yeah that might have predated the policy. I can’t speak for the SOP that far back.
When I was leaving the TSA there were talks about an update to the AIT body scanner that would basically be a “trans-person button” coming in an update. Frustrating it seems to have never come out. Would save a lot of grief if it worked properly.
These machines cannot be run with just one person on them. Once you are scanned and there is an alarm they cannot rescan you because they do not like what they see. The machine is not set for male or female. If there is a groin anomaly and you are presenting as female then a female has to clear the area. If you were presenting female there is no world a male officer would feel your breasts. I am not calling you a liar but your story sounds fictional to me.
I've had the experience plenty of times of different genders feeling me up at different times. Sometimes offered options, sometimes not, but I'm not missing my flight because you got the wrong rent-a-fed having a bad day.
It's possible policies have changed in the past few years or are enforced differently at different airports; this incident happened in 2019 at PDX. If not, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was a female officer standing by who I didn't notice, but I only saw and spoke to a male officer, and he explicitly offered me the option to be re-scanned as a man. I clearly remember that when I initially went through, he told me the anomaly was in the groin region, and when I went through the second time, it was on my chest. At most I could imagine maybe he did ask if I wanted him to get a female officer to feel my breasts and I said no because I just wanted to get it over with quicker, but I don't recall being offered the option.
Considering my own experience getting crotch "checked" by male TSA, I don't exactly find their story hard to believe. Only difference is that I wasn't offered a rescan. I was offered to be checked in a private room which I turned down.
If they do not have the stuffing the use the metal detector instead of the full body scanner. I recently left the TSA but I worked there for 2 years. During the shutdown we were understaffed. If we didnt have the numbers we couldn't use the body scanner and had to use the metal detector
i boymoded twice into and out of the USA and got through screening alright, but i did end up getting pulled into secondary processing in Houston which was 😬😬😬
I’m a dude and learned to wear baggy stuff. Idk why but work clothes and tighter stuff sets off my junk by baggier clothes don’t? No belt and not metal buttons. It’s WEIRD.
But, why? Most trans guys end up with micro penises that literally occur in cis guys sometimes, too. So what is the actual benefit of scanning for dicks? (Chest I kinda get, due to it getting read as a vest, etc.)
So sorry for this, I am not on T so I am speculating, but the enlarged anatomy could be hidden in the labia so it doesn’t visibly stick out, whereas with a cis guy it’s coming from the mound itself and not hidden between the labia. Also bottom growth doesn’t give you balls.
The trans guy I know that is on T says that putting a folded sock in his boxers makes it so he’s not flagged.
What? Why?! Sounds medieval, we've got plenty of good drugs. Having a piece of metal inserted...well, anywhere frankly should well qualify for usage of whatever chemical fun time is available.
OBGYNs in the united states believe that female reproductive organs don't have nerve endings and thus anyone with a vag doesn't feel pain down there, despite the fact we as a species recognize the only thing more painful than child birth is nerve damage
It's not just America either, I've had 2 IUDs in Canada and all they said was take ibuprofen IF it hurts after. Both times were the most painful experiences of my life by an incomparable mile, and I have been through some seriously painful shit.
They can see dicks and tits on those X-rays? That’s fucking nuts. I bet a lot of perverts love working at the tsa. Especially with all the touching and shit
It can see injuries too, mates who have had major surgery EG leaving a scar or skin graft always get patted down because one limb isn't the same shape as the other for example.
The x-rays themselves can, but they use software maybe ai or something to detect unusual readings and display them on a screen. Nobody is supposed to be shown the raw x-ray images.
Yeah but they had to change it to that because it used to be a very detailed image but the male tsa agents were making copies and passing them around. Back then, one agent got really close to my face when I stepped out of one of those and said "smile for me sweetie". It's a horrifying situation all around. You never know who is going to victimize you after an experience like that
I was wearing a tunic and they sent me through 3 times once, with variations of tucked/untucked shirt. I still don't know what happened. I still feel mortified by it lmao
Like...they're caught off guard that it's there at all? That sounds infuriating to deal with. The shit I take for granted as a cis guy, sorry you have to deal with all that ☹️
if it helps anyone, I found that a good tuck gets you through the scanner the majority of the time. I used unclockable but two pairs of tight underwear also worked in a pinch once
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u/bopyw 29d ago
What