My daughter is going on a trip with her church group this summer which will involve air travel. She has traveled since transitioning but, previously, her IDs still had her birth name. Because of that, despite the fact that she looked more feminine, scanning at the airport was not problematic. This time, her name and gender markers have been changed and her ID will not match what the scanners find. The director of the youth program and I have discussed this issue and she is ready and willing to help my daughter through this mine field (a massive thank you goes out to her and all allies, especially those working with our kids!).
I just stumbled across a piece online about being transgender at the TSA checkpoint. It reminded me that I need to talk to my daughter about how she wants to approach her security check experience. She has choices, as long as the TSA policy on transgender folks remains the same. Will she choose to have a pat down or will she choose to ask them to press the "male" button on the scanner. And, whichever method she chooses, how will the agents react here in our red state? And what about other airports as they travel across the country? And will the policy stay the same? With the new administration hell bent on removing protections for trans folks, there's no telling.
Ugh.