A transgender Transportation Security Administration employee has sued the agency’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, over policies that prohibit trans employees from searching airline passengers or acting as witnesses.
According to multiple media outlets, Daniel Mittereder, a TSA employee at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia on November 7. It named Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, known for her anti-trans views, as a defendant.
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Mr. Mitteder joined TSA in July 2024. Starting in 2021, trans staff will be allowed to work in accordance with their gender identity, allowing trans women to fondle female passengers and trans men to fondle male passengers. However, following President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only the male and female genders assigned at birth, the TSA stopped allowing pat-downs by trans employees in February.
“Transgender police officers will no longer engage in patrol operations that are based on both the biological sex of the traveler and the officer,” the directive obtained by TSA states. Associated Press. “Additionally, if a traveler chooses a patdown that takes place in a private screening area, transgender personnel will no longer serve as witnesses as required by TSA.”
According to the exclusion policy, trans personnel will also not be allowed to practice pat-downs during training or demonstrate pat-downs to others undergoing training, but “will remain eligible to perform all other security screening functions in accordance with their qualifications.”
Mittereder’s lawsuit says the policy discriminates against her on the basis of her sex and gender identity and violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bostock v. Clayton County; The U.S. Supreme Court has held that Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination in employment includes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Simply because she is transgender, TSA currently prohibits Plaintiff from performing the core functions of her job, prevents her from advancing to higher-level positions and professional certifications, excludes her from TSA-managed facilities, and subjects her identity to unwanted and unwarranted scrutiny on every workday,” the complaint states.
She was subject to work restrictions, meaning she could not swap shifts or work overtime, and at least one co-worker said she was uncomfortable working with Mittereder because of her gender identity, the lawsuit continues. And performing patdowns and training others in them is part of the requirements for promotion.
“The February 7 directive states that [Mittereder] “She has to ask for help every time she’s on the job, or she has to take a pat-down, exposing her gender identity to co-workers, her boss, and the passengers on the plane,” the article continues.
“As a result of the defendant’s discrimination, [Mittereder] “She has suffered and continues to suffer from anxiety, depression, fear, anxiety, crying, sadness, and low mood,” the lawsuit continues.[She] She has experienced, and continues to experience, anger, frustration, embarrassment, and humiliation as a result of the defendant’s decisions to ban her from many of her jobs, give her special treatment, and stigmatize her because of her gender identity. ”
Mittereder received the highest possible performance rating in her review, and her supervisors “praised her professionalism, skills, knowledge, and relationships with co-workers and the public,” the complaint states.
The policy is “deeply humiliating and 100 percent illegal,” attorney Jonathan Puth, who is representing Mr. Mittereder with co-counsel Carla Brown, told The Associated Press.
Puru further said: independent person “She is able to work and she wants to go to work every day and do her job, but the only reason she is not allowed to do that is because she is transgender,” Mittereder said.
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Asked for comment by the AP, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said: “Does the AP want female travelers to be subjected to pat-downs by male TSA agents? What a wasteful and fundamentally dangerous idea to put psychological paranoia above the comfort and safety of American travelers.”
Everett Kelly, national president of the American Federation of Public Employees, said the TSA should reconsider its policies. “This policy will not improve airport safety and may actually delay screening of airline passengers because it means there will be fewer officers conducting enforcement checks,” Kelly told The Associated Press.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
