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Comment by dubcanada | Hacker News Reader

Sadly the TSA and really any screening process is all about trying to find abnormalities. There is no way around it, using their example if you "look" like a female and are wearing baggy underwear while 99.9% of females do not. That is an abnormality. That alone won't trigger anything, but a combination of things (purely statistics) should require a search of some sort.

I don't think the issue is with that, I think the issue is with how it is handled and what the "search" is.

Nobody ever wants to be singled out, and no one wants to be that 0.01%. But the sad truth is, some people will be, and just based on the amount the 0.01% will be the minority.

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If the TSA's practices amounted to anything other than security theater, then your argument that these humiliations are inevitable but necessary might hold more water.

Why can't they learn to be sensitive when certain characteristics like that come up occasionally, especially since they aren't really a predictor of being a threat? You might as well say "the TSA's job is to be alert for abnormalities, so unfortunately it's inevitable that if you wear polka-dotted socks then you're more likely to be pulled aside for additional screening." It doesn't have anything to do with anything.

And to those who think 0.01% may sound like it'd be a rare occurrence, LAX, for example, averaged 164k passengers per day in 2006 which means approximately 1643 of the passengers were in this 0.01% minority. 1643 occurrences per day is quite common.

I've also been frequently flagged in the past for not fitting in the TSA's narrow gender model to the point of getting Precheck at the cost of my privacy and money. It's very frustrating.

Not to take away from your point but 0.01% of 164k is ~17.

Edit:

I didn't want to be a jerk so I decided to look it up. Looks like NYT[1] has the number at 0.6% (probably higher in reality since it's self reported) so that's about 1000 people a day.

Also stats offer little comfort when you're part of that group and it happens to you 100% of the time.

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/health/transgender-popula...

It’s probably lower in reality since it’s phone poll and minorities are probably more likely to participate in polls.

> minorities are probably more likely to participate in polls

on what basis do you believe that to be the case?

Just my humble experience. Any minorities (e. g. people of minor nations, like Icelanders) always try to remind everyone of own existence. Which is not a bad thing, and this is maybe untrue, but this could be an explanation of possible trans-people overrepresentation.

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