New Bill Would Improve Airport Screenings For Transgender People

A new bill introduced by U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice would require the Transportation Security Agency to improve its outdated and humiliating screening practices for transgender people.

Currently, TSA forces travelers to be scanned by machines that attempt to sort travelers by gender and routinely subject transgender travelers to false alarms and invasive pat-downs. Transgender people face routine mistreatment by TSA agents, with more than a third of transgender travelers in the 2015 US Transgender Survey facing harassment because of their gender identity or expression.

The new bill introduced by Rep. Rice - entitled the Screening With Dignity Act of 2018 - would mandate the TSA conduct a thorough review of its practices, including re-training of its agents at airports and travel hubs across the country. The bill would also require TSA to report to Congress on the cost and feasibility of upgrading body scanners to be gender neutral and respect the dignity of all passengers.

Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, praised the bill as a crucial step forward:

"The TSA is broken, and it has been broken for all travelers for a long time. For many transgender people, every vacation or business trip begins with invasive body scans and humiliating pat-downs. No more empty promises – the TSA needs to make real changes to both the ineffective machines that cause so many false alarms and their training and procedures.

Humiliating travelers doesn't make anyone safer. This bills lays out a clear course to solve these problems in a way that respects the needs of travelers while keeping our airports and our skies safe for all.”