However, screeners will be given some discretion to forgo searches based on age and gender, so that passengers aren't being patted down by screeners of the opposite sex.
Interesting - the article I read emphasized there would be only same-sex screening and said nothing aobut discretion to forego screening based on age or gender; hopefully, this will mean that no old lady will be forced to undergo the indignity of having some screener reaching up under granny's skirt to find her mid-thigh and patdown her legs. (from poster realted to me in another thread on this same topic.)