A warning about the conference t-shirts

D Ruth Bavousett druthb at gmail.com
Thu Jun 6 10:18:52 PDT 2013


On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Nóirín Plunkett <noirin at apache.org> wrote:

> > Being a person with a bionic leg, I rarely ever get the *opportunity* to
> opt
> > for what happens.
>
> Ironically (?), the times I've been *least* thoroughly screened have
> all been when I was using a wheelchair.


Me too, oddly. By "least thoroughly," I mean that they were actually
reasonably polite about it. But see below.


> > I get the thorough groping just about everywhere.
>
> I've never had a genuinely thorough screening in the USA. Personally,
> I would choose (and advocate) opting-out even if I did, but part of
> what makes me furious about the TSA is that they do screen people
> differently based on characteristics that have nothing to do with the
> actual risks they're trying to prevent.


Exactly.  I've seen elderly cancer patients be asked to remove wigs, get
out of wheelchairs and stand up (unaided), and all sorts of other madness.
  These folks have semi-absolute power over whether or not you get on that
plane, and, well..."absolute power..."  *shrug*


> > I've gotten that treatment every time I've flown since way, way before
> TSA even
> > existed, and even been asked to *remove my leg*.
>
> !!! :-(
>
> (I have no words. That is thoroughly not ok.)
>

Correct, and in the US, it is, in fact, an unlawful request--but that
doesn't mean they don't *make* it, it just means I've got backing when I
kick about it.

Not so, when I traveled to India.  At the Mumbai airport, when a small
brown woman with a rifle over her shoulder asks you to remove your
leg...you remove your leg, and stand there on one foot weeping while all
the other women in the women-only line--mostly beautiful flight attendants
in beautiful saris--just stare at the ugly duckling who's holding up the
works.

> Being a transwoman these
> > days makes it worse; it just confuses them, and I occasionally have to
> point
> > loudly at my passport and note that I don't wish for a man to do that
> > groping.
>
> ibid.
>

TSA actually has *procedures in place* to cope with both disabled and
transgender travelers, and at *most* major airports, I don't get in a lot
of mischief.  But small regionals can be a problem, because their method of
"training" such persons is to pin a note on a bulletin board or something.
 Having a passport as opposed to a drivers' license to show, and having
that match what you need it to, is a Big Help, espeically if that passport
has  some non-blank pages.

--DRB
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