The TSA's Security Checks At Airports Has A Secret Sexist Side

If you have ever flown on any airline, you are familiar with the long lines and beeps of airport of security. With the recent incline in incidence of terrorist events, especially those involving airplanes, the TSA or Transportation Security Agency has been constantly updating security standards.

However in the midst of you rushing to get through, you probably didn't take time to notice how the habits of security and the operating officers has some very sexist tendencies.

So within the past few months, I have visited the airport with my family a few times. Each time, we were forced to remove our shoes and put our bags on the conveyor belt as normal, however the body scanners are where things got unjust.

My father and I were separated from my younger sibling and my mother. They had the choice of two body scanners, one that does a full body scan and creates an image of your anatomical physique or the normal metal detecting one.

My father and I were forced to walk through the one that creates an image. I normally wouldn't have thought much of this, if I hadn't seen this happen to everyone else. Women and children had the choice of which scanner to go through while men were coaxed through the full body scan one. No matter if they were alone or with their family boarding their planes.

There is obviously a stigma toward men when it comes to airport security, since they obviously need to be searched more.

This also was upsetting because I identify as a non-binary gender and just because I have a masculine presentation, they grouped me with the men and forced me through an already invasive scanner.

I have come to find out that many other non-binary individuals, transgenders and androgynous persons have faced discrimination in airport security. They have been subject to extra pat downs and scans when it is discovered they are a queer gender or genitals don't match their presentation.

This is especially true for people who are transitioning between the binary genders. Such as those who are Female to Male, or Female to Male transgenders. Many reporting that they have been touched in ways that invoked extreme feelings of anxiety and dysphoria. Or have even been forced to expose their genitals.

On a separate but still unfair note, many US owned international airports have been implementing a new form of security. It's a facial recognition scanner, uploading your face to a database of faces to store along with your demographics, also to verify that you're the person on your passport.

This wouldn't be such a big problem if it two factors of the system weren't true. The first being that your face is stored in a database. Since this is a relatively new technology and method of security, not much is known about what happens after the fact to your photo. It has been rumored that they could be handed off to the government itself, which they can use at their disposal. The second problem is that facial scanners only have about a 97% accuracy factor. This means that about 3 out of 100 people are not recognized and can be accused of imitating someone else or recognized as the wrong person. This may not seem like a big problem since the percentage of inaccuracy is so low, but when you think about it, the people that travel through the international terminal of the airport each day is in the hundred thousands. Now think of how many people in total would receive some sort of error with the system. Just imagine if they decide to implement this technology with domestic flights, how much the numbers will creep up.

The good news is that you can opt out of this new system, however you are promised a thorough patdown.

Bottom line is, having high security with travel is a very positive thing. Especially in a day in age with weapons, drugs, international aggression and terrorism. However, we must be careful to be fair to every group, not to cause anyone pain in the process and make sure we value people's safety with their biographical and demographical information.