On the Invisibility of Trans People

[bcholmes]

"There will not be a situation that could cause embarrassment," she added.

-- an article on the new "see through your clothing" machines at Heathrow

Comments

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

Wowzers. Am I ever glad they only came up with that now.

[tibetanmonastic.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...An embarassing fictional scenario

Alice had her SRS few weeks ago. Upon going thru airport screening to travel home to recuperate, the new "see thru clothes" x-ray system picks up a rectangular mass in her pelvis region. She’s nervous and her body structure aspects that suggests questionable gender status. The TSA security staffs have their flags go up. A standard pat down reveals nothing. A TSA watch supervisor is not comfortable with the x-ray images and the whole feel of the situation. Alice is taken to a more private holding area, while her scheduled flight leaves without her. In the private holding area a nurse is called and a cavity search is performed on the nearly hysterical Alice, the inspection reveals Alice’s plastic “surgical stint.”

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I think by that they meant that only a trained professional will be looking at the screen. It won't be public, like the screen on the X-ray machine that caught some lady's giant dildo in front of a crowd of people.

It would be a different kind of embarassing for a trans person than for anyone else. Quite frankly, I'd be more worried about trans people and airport security in queer-phobic nations that do things like arrest people for 'falsifying' their sex in order to get married. Not naming any names.