Transgender woman detained by TSA at Orlando airport

Shadi Petosky live-tweeted her ordeal saying that she missed her American Airlines flight due to the incident.

Officials eventually cleared Petosky to cross the security checkpoint, leaving her to rebook her travel arrangements.

“As I’m sitting there, already clearly embarrassed, I leaned over to the screener and explained to her what I think the anomaly is”, which she could clearly see was in her groin area. I am in the corner charging my phone. How?

Transgender men and women are subject to more airport security checks, according to Homeland Security documents obtained by Al Jazeera America in 2014.

The awkward conversation brought Petosky to tears as additional agents questioned her gender and pulled her aside for a 40-minute pat-down, inspection and explosive material scare that resulted in a missed flight to Minneapolis.

She said she was finally rebooked on another flight leaving out of Miami the next day. According to a National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 17% of trans people reported being harassed at the airport or on an airplane and 11% said they’d been denied equal treatment.

The Transportation Security Administration does not have any posted policy about how transgender people should be treated, aside from basic guidance that they should use the name and gender that appears on their government-issued ID. “After examining closed circuit TV video and other available information, TSA has determined that the evidence shows our officers followed TSA’s strict guidelines”.

‘Supervisory personnel and a Passenger Support Specialist participated in the screening to ensure guidelines were met’. For a transgender woman (scanned as a woman), her penis might appear as such.

In a statement to the influential gay magazine The Advocate, a TSA spokesman said: “Our officers are trained to properly screen members of the transgender community”.

Michael Silverman, executive director of the New York-based Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, said his office has received numerous complaints about TSA agents mistreating transgender passengers in recent years, including allegations that the travelers were patted down by agents of the opposite gender. They have also expressed outrage at the TSA. “I zero percent want to be googled as the transsexual who’s junk got flagged in Orlando”, she wrote at one point. Since particle scanners can reveal a person’s genitals, trans people have feared profiling at the hands of TSA agents who are notoriously undertrained when it comes to handling trans travelers.

“American Airlines manager is telling me that “in the future ask for a private screening”, she tweeted.