(LifeSiteNews) — A trans-identifying male TSA officer at the Dulles International Airport is suing for the right to pat down female travelers, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday.
Danielle Mittereder is alleging in his lawsuit that the Transportation Security Administration, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, is violating his civil rights due to its implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order ordering that the male-female sex binary be affirmed in all federal government roles.
“Solely because she [sic] is transgender, TSA now prohibits Plaintiff from conducting core functions of her job, impedes her advancement to higher-level positions, and specialized certifications, excluded her from TSA-controlled facilities, and subject her identity to unwanted and undue scrutiny each workday,” the lawsuit states. Mittereder takes particular umbrage at being barred from female-only facilities like bathrooms.
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TSA spokesperson Russell Read told the Associated Press that it is now policy that “Male Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on male passengers and female Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on female passengers, based on operational needs.” Mittereder is alleging that this is “sex discrimination.”
The Associated Press also obtained documents from “one current and two former TSA workers” detailing the policy change since Trump’s executive order, which stipulates that “transgender officers will no longer engage in pat-down duties, which are conducted on both the traveler’s and officer’s biological sex. In addition, transgender officers will no longer serve as a TSA-required witness when a traveler elects to have a pat-down conducted in a private screening area.”
In other words, men who identify as women are no longer permitted to pat down female travelers or accompany women into private screening areas, a change from a previous management directive from 2021. It is important to note that trans-identifying TSA employees are still allowed to “perform all other security screening functions consistent with their certifications” – they are just not permitted to conduct pat-downs.
It is difficult to imagine a less sympathetic lawsuit – but Mittereder has plenty of backers. Skye Perryman, CEO of the legal outfit Democracy Forward, told AP that barring him from patting down female travelers is “arbitrary and discriminatory,” stating that: “There’s no evidence or data we’re aware of to suggest that a person can’t perform their duties satisfactorily as a TSA agent based on their gender identity.”
Of course, a policy stating that only women can pat down women is anything but “arbitrary,” and nobody is claiming that Mittereder can’t pat down women. The policy states that he shouldn’t, because the federal government does not recognize his claim to be a woman.
In fact, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said as much. “Does the AP want female travelers to be subjected to pat-downs by male TSA officers?” she asked the Associated Press in a written response to questions. “What a useless and fundamentally dangerous idea, to prioritize mental delusion over the comfort and safety of American travelers.”
She’s not the only one. As the AP noted: “Airport security expert and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Sheldon H. Jacobson, whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, said that the practice of matching the officer’s sex to the passenger’s is aimed at minimizing passenger discomfort during screening. Travelers can generally request another officer if they prefer, he added.”
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The TSA policy emphasizes that trans-identifying employees are not to be discriminated against with regards to salary or promotions, but Mittereder argues otherwise in his lawsuit, with his lawyer stating that “all paths toward advancement require that she [sic] be able to perform pat-downs and train others to do so.” Mittereder claims that being prohibited from pat-down duties has caused “fear, anxiety, and depression,” and even claims that the policy likely causes air travel delays.
The comfort of the women who would be patted down by Mittereder is apparently of no consequence. This lawsuit is yet more evidence that trans activists wish to transition all of society to align with their identity claims – regardless of what everyone else must endure in consequence.
