Dyssonance

So I was engaged in a conversation last night and one of the things that came up sorta half interesting was I was asked how my expereince with flying was — do I have issues or concerns or other things?

In going through security on the way here, I did indeed, go through the full body scanner.  I also had a pat down and my carry on was gone through.

For me, personally, this isn’t a big deal.  I’ve gone through them before, and I am not particularly worried about the usual stuff that you see people talk about, but I’m still pretty human, and, as a result, I get nervous like a lot of people do.

Trans folk are often very reticent to talk about things in even a roughly public setting, and that creates a sort of hesitancy on their part.

THis makes them balk at things that are little too personal for their comfort, and what’s interesting about this is a simple quirk:

TSA folks are trained to keep their eyes open and to look for people who seem nervous, and people who might balk.

So, in effect, they are trained to spot trans folk.

The solution to this problem is not a comfortable one for many people, but I thought I’d at least mention it: stop hiding stuff.

That is, dont’ worry if they see something you’d rather they not see, because the more ya worry about it the more you set of their triggers that make them think they should be paying more attention, and it escalates into this complicated terrible situation that we all hate.

For me, the whole process of all of that stuff took about 5 minutes.  The TSA team was very polite, pointedly used ma’am, blah blah blah, and generally weren’t anymore worried about me than I was about them, and that’s the end lesson here.

Live your life as if it doesn’t matter, and it won’t.

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