Salon: Anti-gay group targets gay TSA workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.salon.com/news/transportation_security_administration/?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/11/17/gay_tsa

Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010 10:39 ET

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality argues sexuality matters when it comes to same-sex pat-downs at airports
By Tracy Clark-Flory

Amid recent controversy over airport pat-downs, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality is calling for the Transportation Security Administration to institute some "common-sense, healthy 'discrimination'" by banning "self-acknowledged homosexuals" from doing security screenings, "so as to avoid being put in sexually compromising situations." It goes without saying that AFTAH is motivated by hate and homophobia, and the group's press release is dripping with bigotry: "The reality is, most traveling men would not want Barney Frank to pat them down at the airport security checkpoint. Neither would it be fair to assign Ellen DeGeneres to pat down female travelers." (Way to call out the two homosexuals you know!) This also taps into a shameful history of gay people being shut out of certain professions and treated as though they're incapable of controlling their rabid desire and acting professionally -- whether it's as a TSA agent or a Boy Scout leader.

That said, there's an interesting question at play here: Why do we have same-sex pat-downs? Is it because we're more comfortable having someone with breasts manually examine our breasts? Is it because we assume it reduces the likelihood that the person patting down our thighs will be turned on by the interaction? Is it some combination of the two? You can ask similar questions about other things that we take for granted -- gender-designated bathrooms and locker rooms, for example. It's easy enough to come up with hypotheticals that weaken the supposed strength of how we organize our entire world. As Caster Semenya made so clear, it's an imperfect system; and, ultimately, same-sex pat-downs are an imperfect way of reducing discomfort and putting the person under scrutiny at ease.

FULL story at link.

[Kolesar]

1. On the contrary, TSA should hire gay men to pat down lesbians

and ... oh, never mind

[Canuckistanian]

3. Somebody brought up a point yesterday

A caller to a phone-in show said that gay male travellers should be insisting on women to do pat-downs - if people are worried about "sexually compromising situations". And the reverse for lesbians, I suppose.

It's all bullshit anyways.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[justiceischeap]

4. Typical

What no one seems to be talking about though are all the people who have been sexually assaulted/abused that wouldn't be comfortable with a pat down from gay/straight/male/female. This whole thing is ridiculous. Next thing that's going to happen is we'll have to get naked before going through screening.

I'm sure the TSA, at some point, has done *some* good but the likelihood that we'd have another 9/11 attack is improbable. The thing that made it work so well was the element of surprise.