Trans woman accuses TSA of targeting her at airport security because of her extra body parts

Trans woman accuses TSA of targeting her at airport security because of her extra body parts | Secret Flying

Trans woman shares fury over airport checks.

 

A trans woman has shared on TikTok the difficult experience she endures while going through airport security, explaining “how horrible” it is to travel as a trans person.

 

In a video shared with her 481,000 TikTok followers, Rosalynne Montoya said that while her gender markers on her I.D. cards are correct, she usually sets off the scanner because of her body due to the “anomaly between my legs”.

 

In an incident before her flight to LA, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent asked if she had anything down her pants and she said “no”, so she was scanned a second time, which triggered the alarm again.

 

“So, I was like, ‘Look, I’m trans. Just pat me down’,” Ms Montoya says in the video.

 

“And her solution was, ‘Do you want to be scanned as a man instead?’ I didn’t. But, I ended up doing it and then my boobs set off the scanner because, of course. So I tried to make a joke out of it and said don’t worry, there’s just a bunch of plastic in there.”

 

“Then she said we have to pat you down and asked if I would prefer a man to do it. I said absolutely not.”

 

The viral video, titled “TSA is transphobic”, has attracted many trans people to comment on their own similar experiences while travelling.

 

Montoya wrote on Instagram: “It’s been proven that the system we have in place is broken and doesn’t work.

 

“We also need to train people on how to treat trans people. If I tell you I’m a trans woman, it most likely means I want to be scanned as a woman, treated as a woman, and patted down by a woman.”

 

TSA has frequently come under fire for their binary scanning technology and officers lacking awareness of trans issues.

 

@rosalynnemontoyaWe need to change how the scanners function and educate TSA about trans people. ##tsa ##trans ##transgender ##transphobia ##transphobic ##travel♬ original sound – Rose Montoya