Transgender Navy SEAL Humiliated at Airport Screening

Transgender former US Navy Seal Senior Chief Kristin Beck speaks during a conference entitled "Perspectives on Transgender Military Service from Around the Globe" organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Palm Center in Washington on October 20, 2014. Transgender military personnel from 18 countries who allow them to serve openly, gathered to talk about their experiences and discuss whether the US military could join them. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Kristin Beck says the entire situation was humiliating and that the TSA needs better training.

A retired transgender Navy SEAL went through a very uncomfortable situation at an airport this past Tuesday. According to CNN, Kristin Beck was on her way to Kansas City to give a speech to federal employees about gender sensitivity. This has been her job since she stopped using her birth name, Christopher Beck, and wrote a book about her life as a member of SEAL Team 6.

However, when she went through security screening at Reagan National Airport, an officer asked her to step aside for a second screening – one that would require a pat-down. The problem was that both officers present – a male and a female – didn’t know how to proceed.

Despite Kristin’s reassurance that she was indeed a female, the officers called their supervisor to settle the situation, since they thought she was a man. Even though it wasn’t the first time this had happened, she said it was still humiliating and that it never gets any easier.

Things got even worse when the supervisor arrived, promptly instructing the male officer to pat “him” down in front of all the other passengers who were waiting in line.

“These are my real boobs, he’s not going to pat me down,” she recalls telling agents. “This is wrong. I’m a female, it says female on my Maryland driver’s license. This is the real me.”

According to Beck, the supervisor responded, “Then somebody pat him down.”

The female officer then stepped forward and checked her over. After that, Beck got her things and went on her way, holding back tears. She pulled out her phone and recounted the experience in a Facebook post.

“I’m sad, for TSA, our country, our future … Why is this so difficult?” she wrote.

Beck recounted what happened during her speech and, after that, TSA employees came up to her and apologized. Not all employees are like that, they told her. Some of them saw her post on Facebook and shared it with their leadership. Beck was then contacted by them and got an apology for the entire situation.

The TSA has not commented on the incident.

[Photo: Huffington Post]