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Comment by cstross | Hacker News Reader

I plan to opt for the pat-down every time I'm given the option as an alternative a body scan.

I'm male (and reasonably free of hang-ups). If being groped by a man, I plan to writhe and moan with evident enjoyment (unless he pings my gaydar). If examined by a female officer or a gay male, I will threaten to file accusations of sexual harrassment.

Why?

Call it a small scale civil rights protest, and note that if everyone does it (or even 1% of everyone in the queue) the whole stupid mess will grind to a halt sooner rather than later.

(And they haven't managed to ban feigning pleasure yet, nor do they have any insight into my actual state of mind -- who knows, maybe I am enjoying it?)

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I'm all for opting out every time; I plan to do it myself. Moaning and threatening sexual harassment borders on childish, though. Not because the new pat downs aren't sexual harassment, but that your double standard of "moan with straight men, accuse the rest" makes it obvious that you don't actually feel harassed. It cheapens the more legitimate complaints of people like the woman in the article.

"It cheapens the more legitimate complaints of people like the woman in the article."

It would be a legitimate complaint if this woman voiced her objections seven years ago when the money was being appropriated, or perhaps five years ago when Jeffrey Rosen wrote his book about them. But if you don't start speaking up until other people's tax dollars have already been spent then your opinion doesn't deserve much weight.

I totally support your mission, but I'm not a big fan of filing false or exaggerated sexual harassment claims.

I don't think there is anything at all exaggerated about this being sexual assault. It's far past anything you'd get anywhere else outside of a pre-prison/jail search.

It's exaggerated because he's intentionally trying to provoke a reaction. It's better that you just let them act unprofessionally all on their own, and then go file an official complaint and another with the ACLU here: http://bit.ly/9KOipo

I don't want to argue, but my point is that there surely will be specific TSA agents out there who will abuse their authority in perverted and illegal ways. It would be a shame if complaints against them were buried under complaints from people protesting the policy that the entire agency is operating under.

This is pretty much my exact plan if I ever fly anywhere that tried to implement this.

I've written about the unfortunate personal consequences of the DHS and TSA here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1850768 but I just don't see how I can go to a country that pays people to sexually assault men, women and (presumably if they or their parents refuse the scatter scan) children on entry or exit.

You should also preemptively yell "OPT-OUT!" when declaring your intention to opt-out.

This idea I like, like, a lot. Next time I walk up to the gate, I'm hollering. "Opt out! You've got an opt-out here! Opt out!".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T9YaDZRUTw

"What's that?"

"That's my penis."

"Sorry about that."

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