TSA treatment is the same either way, since it's just an alternative way to qualify for pre-check on domestic or outbound flying.

It's definitely worth the extra $15 if you fly internationally at all. I mean, I'd pay $15 to miss just one bad line at immigration or customs (more likely both!) even if I only planned to fly internationally once in 5 years.

For 2-4x a year, it was worth it even before it came with pre-check, but it was no help with the TSA checkpoints back then.

One could presume pre would be slightly better in that scenario as a person has a better chance of WTMD which is not interested in "anomalies" but metal.

IMO Yes GE is most certainly worth it, even if only flying once a year overseas let alone the scores of time people like me use it each year.

Yes, regardless of whether applying directly to PreCheck or getting it via Global Entry, it sounds like it would be a win for the OP.

(Indeed, it's a huge win even without such deeply personal reasons to be concerned about privacy.)

I was thinking of that one small extra step being the application process itself. Even without the extra advantages GE brings over PreCheck, not having to go through TSA for the application is a benefit all by itself IMO.

Having not gone through their application process, I don't know if it's any better or worse than GE; my own experience applying for GE was very easy and the interview fairly nominal.

Sorry I never reported back... the trip ended up being delayed to just this past weekend.

Opted out from the NoS at both BOS and BUF... at Logan it took them a few minutes to locate a female TSO to do my pat down but from there it was really smooth. She moved my carry on, laptop, and boots to where I could have it in sight at all times, offered a private room (which I declined) and then explained everything she was doing as she searched me. I felt that I was treated with respect and despite needing to check my groin area my gender was never called into question. It was really not a big deal at all.

Still going to apply for GE before my next trip, precheck sounds wonderful and like it might be a huge time saver in the future.

I'm glad it worked out well. Thanks for reporting back to us!

Mike

Hi. I talked with her, and she had no objections to being rescanned. She might have preferred that they scan with the "blue" button as the patdown would be in a less sensitive spot. However, that part of the story got emphasized due to the inarticulate language of the agent. Her delays all seemed to come from agents arguing with each other over what to do and waiting for superiors to arrive.

I feel sorry for the female agent who got to sack tap you in your pat down. Glad you got what you wanted though.

Remember also, flight attendants have the ability to make your flight just miserable too. I had a really bad experience on Lufthansa I won't get into, just know it was humiliating and horrible.

Not sure who you're talking to, but whoever it is, I don't think anyone got what they wanted. I hate to have anyone have to do a "sensitive" pat down. I feel like I'M subjecting THEM to it, even though it's their requirements. And there's nothing I can do to avoid it.

:( ignore the stupid flaming... there's a few VERY queerphobic people on here...

We all come across people who dont accept others. I am 100% hetrosexual female. My "buddy" is 100 % gay male. So I get this more than peole know

I'm not trying to be offensive, it's an issue that I find interesting. Society will have some learning and adjustments to make.

I agree about TSA, and I'm sure it would be unpleasant for both, but it seems like if you have a penis you would get a male pat down.

It's not about being intolerant it's about being practical.

I don't think women TSA agents should have to come to work and touch penises.

I don't think TSA agents should touch anybody's genitals.

Traveling while trans
 

It's come up a bunch before, but not had its own thread that I've seen, so… here ya go.

To start it off:

http://trans-fusion.blogspot.com/201...romise-of.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...ansgender.html What about this thread?

… looks like I missed that. ><

See also http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/tr...or-change.html

Believe me, it had nothing to do with what I "wanted" (my choice would be to go back to the days of the WTMDs for everybody, and the wand to clear alarms.) It was about trying to not be singled out at an airport.

When I feel safe with my surroundings, I'm generally open and comfortable about who I am. I don't wear my trans identity on my sleeve, but I also don't go out of my way to hide it (or "pass" as we sometimes call it in our community.) I'm privileged to live in an area where I usually feel both physically and emotionally safe being myself, and blessed to have friends and colleagues who support me unconditionally, along with stability in my life.

Traveling, especially by air, is a time where I don't feel as safe with my surroundings. I meet a larger cross-section of people when traveling who may or may not tolerant of trans folk. Yes, there are bigots in my hometown just as much as anywhere else, but unlike in my normal day to day life, where if I feel physically or emotionally threatened I can sometimes do things to make the situation safer or if all else fails get in my car and leave, in an airport thousands of miles from home, or in a metal tube 35,000 feet in the air, I don't have that option.

Hence flying is one of the few instances I do try to blend in. The last thing I want is to be clocked as a trans woman (or a man) at the checkpoint, by airport or airline staff, have someone on my flight witness it and find out they're transphobic. Had a male officer performed my patdown, in addition to being extremely uncomfortable for me as a woman (and trans women are women) it would have outed me to anybody paying attention.

I don't think female TSA agents should have to come to work and stick their hands between pax legs or into pax pants and underwear.

I don't think male TSA agents should have to come to work and grope penises and dip into butt cracks.

<redacted by moderator>

eta: There is never any excuse for a pax to have to wait 15-20 minutes or longer for a 'qualified' <redacted by moderator>. I have never had to wait for a <redacted by moderator> at any US airport overseas.

Ask one of the LTSOs or STSOs or BDOs standing around to put their cellphones away, suspend their personal chitchat, put on the gloves and make themselves useful for a change. Do something to earn that fat paycheck and benefits package.

I don't think female travelers should have to be pat down by male officers. I hate to use this as an example... but I have trans sisters who are virtually indistinguishable from cisgender (non-trans) women and frequently get attention (whether desired or not) from straight men - if a male officer is doing the searching there's a huge potential for abuse. In my case, people usually figure out I'm trans* fairly quickly, but that doesn't make me any less of a woman. Why shouldn't I be afforded the same respect and protection as my sisters who do pass? Not that passibility determine's a trans* person's worth, or makes us any less or more of who we are.

Additionally, not everybody who has a penis is male, not all men have a penis. Anatomy doesn't define one's gender. GRS is not something that every trans* person can or wants to obtain. Only ten states (plus the District of Columbia) require health insurers to cover certain gender affirming surgeries. Beyond the financial part of the equation - many of us don't obtain certain surgeries for any number of reasons: potential medical complications, reproductive concerns, religious beliefs, or (such as in my case) simply not wanting it.

you have my 100 % support. I am a female hetrosexual born and I am one. You are in my eyes/mind a female. So all the honor and strength to you.

Thank you, we need more people like you in the world :D

I wasn't trying to make this a social justice or advocacy thread (FT isn't the place for that), but as a trans lesbian I feel obligated to call out transphobic or queerphobic comments when I see them. Sometimes those sentiments comes from a place of bigotry, sometimes just plain ignorance, but my hope is that I can plant a seed in either case. Judging from people in my own life, I've found that it is possible to develop a more open mind and become more accepting of diversity.

I think it boils down to anatomy. If you have male genitalia then a male you do any pat downs. Same for female genitalia and females doing the pat down.

I think it boils down to the passenger's preference. The reason we generally have men screen men and women screen women is to protect the _passenger_ from contact the passenger might find inappropriate, since the contact isn't consensual for them. When the choice is between requiring somebody to out themselves as trans (exposing themselves to potential risk, and at least social discomfort), and having a female screener potentially touch a penis through a couple of layers of clothing as part of her job, the balance comes down in favor of the passenger. If that risk (which is realistically tiny) is too much for a screener to take, then the job probably isn't for them.

Moderator's Note:
 

We are treading awfully close to OMNI/PR territory here.

Thanks for understanding.

TWA884
Co-moderator

Well said

I double that. It is the passenger who gets touched that should be comfortable. Not the screener cause they dont get touched.
It is like going to the doctor and we have to make sure the doctor feels good when they examen a patient? That does not even get close to make any kind of sence to me.

So if I as a male would prefer that a female touch me as opposed to a male, then that should happen? I think that many males would prefer to be screened by a female than a male.

It's a non-sexual 'patdown', so in theory a TSO really shouldn't have any more problem with it than police or medics. Keep it professional and do what has to be done.

Some TSOs have posted here that under certain conditions they are allowed to handle the opposite gender.

Moderator's Note:
 

Reminder:
Please move on.

Thank you

Choosing gender of TSA officer?
 

Not to go off topic but can people choose the gender of the officer performing a frisk search?

The reason I ask is because with all these new 'gender decleration' policies by the US, Canada, and other European countries that do seem to become a bit ridiculous, you would think that if you're a man or woman you can choose to get inspected by someone who is the opposite sex but apparently that's not true :confused:

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening

You will receive a pat-down by an officer of the same gender.

So what do they do when faced with someone intersexed? Do they have an intersexed screener to do the patdown??

According to TSA's published official policy, patdowns are performed by a screener of the same gender as the passenger presents themselves at the checkpoint.

(Insert the usual "but TSA screeners don't always follow published policy" ranting here.)

Their biological sex might be indeterminate but there's a good probability that their gender is male or female.

If a TSA officer can't determine someone's gender from appearance, they ask "What gender are you?" or equivalent.

I was asked this once. I didn't give her a clear answer (not intentionally...just got thrown by the question). At that point she asked "Do you want to be patted down by a male or female officer?" I said female. She prodded my leg a bit. I was good to go.

While there is a good probability that the intersexed are mostly one gender there are a few where they are solidly in the middle. What gender is someone who has a penis and a vagina? (Naturally, not surgically.)

I was joking about it and figuring intersexed as a gender, thus they need to be patted down by someone else who is intersex.

Should Caitlynn Jenner, pre-surgery, have her breasts handled as a woman's or a man's? Should a female screener have the right to refuse to grope someone like Caitlynn Jenner, pre-surgery?

Are male screeners even trained to lift, separate, cup and squeeze? They do have to handle heterosexual males with breasts, I'm sure.

Personally, I don't think a screener should have the right to refuse to screen a pax whose gender they don't identify with. If a pre-surgery Caitlyn Jenner, with full breasts, a bra, and a penis identifies as a woman and wants to be groped by a woman, it should be her choice, including to have the grope in public. TSA assures us there is nothing remotely sexual about the grope, so to any properly trained, professional screener, it's just a living piece of baggage.