At Behest Of Trump Adminstration, TSA Bans Transgender Screeners From Performing Pat Downs
Transgender TSA screeners are now barred from performing pat downs on passengers under a new directive implementing a Trump administration executive order.
Transgender TSA Officers No Longer Permitted To Pat Down Passengers
As noted by View From The Wing, the TSA has updated its policy this week concerning transgender screeners:
In compliance with Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, published January 20, 2025, TSA has rescinded a policy from 2021 regarding transitioning and transgender officers. Male Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat down procedures on male passengers and female Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat down procedures on female passengers.
Did you know that you have always been able to request a different transportation security officer (TSO) if you were uncomfortable with the one assigned to pat you down? That policy remains in effect…at least for now. Going forward, biological males will pat down males and biological females will pat down females (to the extent, I suppose, that can be determined…).
I don’t know that I’ve ever been patted down by a trans agent…certainly not that I can recall.
Nor do I care.
While I realize this is red meat in the culture wars, I’m just not that concerned whether the person who pats me down is male or female, gay or straight, trans or cis, tall or short, slim or fat, beautiful or ugly…this isn’t a dating game, it’s a process to get through to the secure side of the airport as quickly and efficiently as possible.
And there have been bad apples among all groups, like a cabal of TSA agents in Denver (DEN) who targeted “hot” passengers for secondary screening. Those screeners should be fired and be disqualified from federal government work for the rest of their lives. The standard should be simple: professional and courteous conduct that effectively assesses risk while interacting with every passenger with dignity. Can’t be polite? You’re unfit to be a TSO.
At the risk of wading into political waters, the transgender sports concerns strike me as very reasonable, so it’s not like I’m somehow oblivious to more tangible impracticalities with such folks…but this TSA issue strikes me as a silly distraction.
Instead of focusing on who screens who at the TSA, the TSA should do a better job of screening itself…and maybe DOGE should focus on some of the lucrative contracts for new screening machinery that is slower and less efficient than what it is replacing. That’s where the focus should be…
image: TSA