Democrats Demand TSA Implement Special Transgender Screening Procedures

By Jim Jamitis | 2:45 PM on December 02, 2016

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Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY), wants the Transportation Security Administration to put resources toward developing new procedures for screening transgendered travelers.

A description of the bill in the Congressional Record said the bill, H.R. 6420, is meant to “improve the screening of transgender persons at airport security checkpoints.”

The text of the bill wasn’t publicly available, and Rice’s office didn’t respond to questions about the legislation.

However, Rice and dozens of other Democrats made clear in an October letter to the Transportation Security Administration that TSA needs to change its procedures for transgender people.

This proposed legislation is in response to a transgendered woman being detained because of confusion about her gender.

Rice and other Democrats said machines require screeners to select “male” or “female” in order to configure the scanner for each person.

“This protocol may be well-suited to screen some cisgender passengers, but they do so at the expense of singling out transgender or gender nonconforming individuals whose physical appearances may not necessarily match their biological sex,” Democrats wrote. “Cisgender” is a term that refers to anyone who isn’t transgender.

“In light of this issue, we urge the TSA to implement a screening protocol that does not rely on TSOs making often-subjective decisions about an individual’s gender identity,” Democrats wrote.

Never mind the terrorists, TSA, your job is to avoid making a bad call about someone’s “gender identity.” Leave it to Democrats to make bus travel start to look like a more attractive option.

I wonder how many different gender identities the TSA will have to account for to satisfy the social justice warriors. Rep. Rice’s district is just outside New York City where according to HeatStreet at least 31 genders are recognized.