Thank you all for your support. I really do appreciate it. At this point, I'm not planning to pursue the issue any further. I'm not too sure what my "rights" are at this point. It's entirely possible that I could end up on a no-fly list or have to defend my SIDA access or who knows what? The bottom line is that the TSA can basically do whatever they want. Who is to stop them?

And to answer someone's question: I'd rather not say which airport I was flying out of at this point. It isn't one serviced by AS or QX (or I probably wouldn't have been so hesitant to check a bag.)

Lastly, I was traveling on a paid/revenue ticket. I'm glad for that. I was just "John Q Public" on this flight and was not using my airline privileges for anything. I hope that will help me "defend" myself if my employer or the Airport Authority have any concerns about this...