TSA Strikes Again

On Tuesday afternoon,  Kristin Beck, who is transgender and a retired Navy SEAL, was bound for Kansas City to give a speech to federal employees about gender sensitivity. It's what she does, since she stopped going by her birth name, Christopher Beck, wrote a book about her life as a member of SEAL Team 6 and was featured in the CNN series, "Lady Valor."

Beck told CNN she arrived at Reagan National Airport with enough time to spare, but not too much. Beck entered the security checkpoint, put her bags on the conveyor belt and stepped into the body scanner, as she's done countless times before.

When flagged for secondary screening, she took it in stride. She said she waited for one of two Transportation Security Administration agents -- a man and a woman -- to step forward and pat her down. Instead, they turned their backs to her and started whispering.

But to Beck, it was clear what was happening. Despite her makeup, long hair and low-cut blouse, the agents thought she was a man. It wouldn't be the first time since she began publicly living as a woman.

But it still was humiliating, Beck said. It never gets easier.

"I'm a female," she said she told them. "It's no big deal."

Apparently, it was enough to prompt the agents to call their supervisor, she said. When he arrived, the supervisor directed the male agent to pat "him" down in front of the security line, as everyone waited.

"These are my real boobs, he's not going to pat me down," she recalls telling agents.

"This is wrong. I'm a female, it says female on my Maryland driver's license. This is the real me."

According to Beck, the supervisor responded, "Then somebody pat him down."

The female agent stepped forward and did the pat-down, Beck says. After that, Beck went on her way, holding back tears. She pulled out her phone and recounted the experience in a Facebook post."

Ironically, Kristin wrote that this was probably an isolated incident but unfortunately not to certain transgender passengers who travel by air frequently. In fact a trans woman here in Cincinnati was given fits often when she flew from here to LAX Airport.

Please go here to read more of Kristin's comments.. 

Thanks!

I wanted to take this special opportunity to thank all of you who commented here and on FB concerning our upcoming trip to Maine and possible wardrobe necessities.

It means a lot everytime you take the time to write to me, and you out did yourselves this time! :)

Jessie

"Struttin" With The Trans Peeps

From Variety:
"“They’re the best people in the world,” Whoopi Goldberg says about the cast of “Strut,” her new Oxygen show that follows a group of models signed to Slay Model Management, an exclusively transgender modeling agency.

The first reality modeling show to focus solely on transgender artists, “Strut,” which Goldberg executive produces with her producing partner Tom Leonardis, is breaking ground in the unscripted space and marks the latest series in the recent wave of trans-centric programming.

“Our programming commitment is to showcase people on journeys to find their truth — and be their truth. This is a generation who most definitely aren’t going to be confined by yesterday’s social mores and rules,” Rod Aissa, executive vice president of original programming and development at Oxygen, tells Variety."

I have only seen a partial show, but to me it takes a clear true shot at the overly dramatic world of transgender women. Mixed in with just a small dose of reality. The show I saw had quite the scene with the trans guy coming out to his mother.

Even still, I lean towards calling it the "Real Trans Models of L.A." to go with all the Real Housewives shows. Not must see trans programming but entertaining and definitely glamorous! 

To see more and if you can view it on Oxygen go here.