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The Transportation Security Administration, which operates under DHS, enacted the policy in February to comply with President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order declaring two unchangeable sexes<\/a><\/span>: male and female. <\/p>\n According to internal documents explaining the policy change that The Associated Press obtained from four independent sources, including two current and two former TSA workers, \u201ctransgender officers will no longer engage in pat-down duties, which are conducted based on both the traveler\u2019s and officer\u2019s biological sex. In addition, transgender officers will no longer serve as a TSA-required witness when a traveler elects to have a pat-down conducted in a private screening area.\u201d<\/p>\n Until February, TSA assigned work consistent with officers\u2019 gender identity under a 2021 management directive. The agency told the AP it rescinded that directive to comply with Trump\u2019s Jan. 20 executive order. <\/p>\n <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although transgender officers \u201cshall continue to be eligible to perform all other security screening functions consistent with their certifications,\u201d and must attend all required training, they will not be allowed to demonstrate how to conduct pat-downs as part of their training or while training others, according to the internal documents.<\/p>\n A transgender officer at Dulles International Airport, Danielle Mittereder, alleges in her lawsuit filed Friday that the new policy \u2014 which also bars her from using TSA facility restrooms that align with her gender identity \u2014 violates civil rights law. <\/p>\n \u201cSolely because she is transgender, TSA now prohibits Plaintiff from conducting core functions of her job, impedes her advancement to higher-level positions and specialized certifications, excludes her from TSA-controlled facilities, and subjects her identity to unwanted and undue scrutiny each workday,\u201d the complaint says. <\/p>\n Mittereder declined to speak with the AP but her lawyer, Jonathan Puth, called TSA\u2019s policy \u201cterribly demeaning and 100% illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n TSA spokesperson Russell Read declined to comment, citing pending litigation. But he said the new policy directs that \u201cMale Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on male passengers and female Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on female passengers, based on operational needs.\u201d<\/p>\n The legal battle comes amid mounting reports of workplace discrimination against transgender federal employees<\/a><\/span> during Trump\u2019s second administration. It is also happening at a time when TSA\u2019s ranks are already stretched thin<\/a><\/span> due to the ongoing government shutdown<\/a><\/span> that has left thousands of agents working without pay<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Other transgender officers describe similar challenges to Mittereder. <\/p>\n Kai Regan worked for six years at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, but retired in July in large part because of the new policy. Regan, who is not involved in the Virginia case, transitioned from female to male in 2021 and said he had conducted pat-downs on men without issue until the policy change. <\/p>\n \u201cIt made me feel inadequate at my job, not because I can\u2019t physically do it but because they put that on me,\u201d said the 61-year-old, who worried that he would soon be fired for his gender identity, so he retired earlier than planned rather than \u201cwaiting for the bomb to drop.\u201d<\/p>\n Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward \u2014 a legal organization that has repeatedly challenged the second Trump administration<\/a><\/span> in court \u2014 called TSA\u2019s policy \u201carbitrary and discriminatory,\u201d adding: \u201cThere\u2019s no evidence or data we\u2019re aware of to suggest that a person can\u2019t perform their duties satisfactorily as a TSA agent based on their gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n DHS pushed back on assertions by some legal experts that its policy is discriminatory.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes the AP want female travelers to be subjected to pat-downs by male TSA officers?\u201d Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin asked in a written response to questions by the AP. \u201cWhat a useless and fundamentally dangerous idea, to prioritize mental delusion over the comfort and safety of American travelers.\u201d <\/p>\n Airport security expert and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Sheldon H. Jacobson, whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, said that the practice of matching the officer\u2019s sex to the passenger\u2019s is aimed at minimizing passenger discomfort during screening. Travelers can generally request another officer if they prefer, he added.<\/p>\n Deciding where transgender officers fit into this practice \u201ccreates a little bit of uncertainty,\u201d Jacobson said. But because transgender officers likely make up a small percent of TSA\u2019s workforce, he said the new policy is unlikely to cause major delays.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be a bit of an inconvenience, but it would not inhibit the operation of the airport security checkpoint,\u201d Jacobson said.<\/p>\n TSA\u2019s policy for passengers is that they be screened based on physical appearance as judged by an officer, according to internal documents. If a passenger corrects an officer\u2019s assumption, \u201cthe traveler should be patted down based on his\/her declared sex.\u201d For passengers who tell an officer \u201cthat they are neither a male nor female,\u201d the policy says officers must advise \u201cthat pat-down screening must be conducted by an officer of the same sex,\u201d and to contact a supervisor if concerns persist.<\/p>\n The documents also say that transgender officers \u201cwill not be adversely affected\u201d in pay, promotions or awards, and that TSA \u201cis committed to providing a work environment free from unlawful discrimination and retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n But the lawsuit argues otherwise, saying the policy impedes Mittereder\u2019s career prospects because \u201call paths toward advancement require that she be able to perform pat-downs and train others to do so,\u201d Puth said.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Mittereder started in her role in June 2024 and never received complaints related to her job performance, including pat-down responsibilities. Supervisors awarded her the highest-available performance rating and \u201chave praised her professionalism, skills, knowledge, and rapport with fellow officers and the public,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is somebody who is really dedicated to her job and wants to make a career at TSA,\u201d Puth said. \u201cAnd while her gender identity was never an issue for her in the past, all of a sudden it\u2019s something that has to be confronted every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Being unable to perform her full job duties has caused Mittereder to suffer fear, anxiety and depression, as well as embarrassment and humiliation by forcing her to disclose her gender identity to co-workers, the complaint says. It adds that the ban places additional burden on already-outnumbered female officers who have to pick up Mittereder\u2019s pat-down duties.<\/p>\n American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley urged TSA leadership to reconsider the policy \u201cfor the good of its workforce and the flying public.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis policy does nothing to improve airport security,\u201d Kelley said, \u201cand in fact could lead to delays in the screening of airline passengers since it means there will be fewer officers available to perform pat-down searches.\u201d <\/p>\n ________<\/p>\n Associated Press Staff Writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ________<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a><\/span> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a><\/span>.\n <\/div>\n window.fbAsyncInit = function() { };<\/p>\n (function(d, s, id){ A Virginia transportation security officer is accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of sex discrimination over a policy that bars transgender officers from performing security screening pat-downs, according to a federal lawsuit. The Transportation Security Administration, which operates under DHS, enacted the policy in February to comply with President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order declaring … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TSA-banned-transgender-officers-from-doing-pat-downs-A-new-lawsuit.com2Fd32Fac2Fcb1be8b1c6b324fd528698c10f292Fe99833cfd96e4773bbec.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9560,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558\/revisions\/9560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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