Traveling to Las Vegas, I opted out of the scary big machine scanner thingy, and took the pat-down instead.

The guy quickly radioed, “Female assist needed,” and within a few seconds, a female screener appeared.

The airport security authority has clearly bent over backwards to accommodate the most sexually sensitive people out there, from providing a same-sex screener for the pat-down, to instituting procedures requiring them to describe exactly how they are going to touch each part of your body.

As I stood there, with an undoubtedly bemused look on my face as she explained that she was going to use the back of her hand to pat down my ass and my breast area, and the front of her hand on the inside of my leg or arm, or whatever, I found it all just too much.

I am very glad for all the efforts that have been made to ensure that travelers are not discriminated against in any way, but the level of “sensitivity” shown struck me as having descended to the ridiculous.

My personal perspective aside, what about the screeners themselves?

We often concern ourselves with people accommodating themselves to our needs, but think of the woman who had to do my pat-down.

As up close and personal as we were, I am clearly not female…  I mean, she ran her hand right up the inside of my thigh until she hit something.  If she were permitted to be as sensitive about touching/being touched by the opposite sex as we allow passengers to be – and why shouldn’t she be? – then we’d be at a stalemate.  This is an instance (among many others) when indulging everyone to the max is just not possible – and not the first where it is a trans person who throws the biggest wrench in the works.

I am thankful for her indulgence and her consideration of my feelings, but I feel bad at having had mine placed as a priority above hers, even if it was done entirely without my approval or need.

A pat-down should not be a sexual experience, and as long the screening is conducted in a professional manner, as it was by all the screeners I observed, it shouldn’t matter the gender of the screener or the passenger.

Just my thoughts.