I want to depart a moment from the usual silliness and fun that is normally posted on this blog. I want to talk about something that’s very close to me and is very hard for me to talk about. However, I think it’s important that people understand what they are doing.
It has become nearly impossible for me to fly in the United States of America, the land of freedom. In increasing number of airports are using full body scanning technology and invasive pat down procedures in which you are highly likely to be fondled as they involve breasts and genitalia. As a note, I am male. The news has reported erroneously how little detail these machines can uncover, as I have done the research and have seen undoctored photos of just how much they reveal. The news has reported that these images aren’t saved, yet thousands were recently leaked.
I have read about individuals who cry through the ‘groping process’ because they are suffering the effects of being a sexual assault victim. I have read about the strange proceedings these policies have incurred in regards to children. I already have a major distrust of random people in positions of authority, such as at restaurants, police officers, gardeners, movers, paramedics, etc. There is no reason for me to suspect that TSA officials will suddenly be exempt from human problems and predilictions.
I suffer from Bipolar Type I with psychotic symptoms and have been told I have a form of dysmorphophobia or Body Dysmorphic Disorder. While I can’t truly discuss all of the symptoms here to give you the best picture, I can say that I live a balancing act of trying to live normally amidst painful obsessions about myself and frightening obsessions of the world around me. My paranoia presents me with unique problems when it comes to being searched. I am terrified of being seen naked by anyone other than my partner. I am absolutely horrified by the thought of someone touching me in sensitive areas. When I list these emotions, I cannot emphasize how powerful they are. These emotions about various things are powerful enough to immobilize me for hours just about every other day. They are powerful enough that they effect my ability to work: I can’t hold a job. They are so powerful that I’ve attempted suicide trying to get away from them. I can’t be touched by a doctor in any sensitive areas at all, and I’m terrified of the thought of having to be tranquilized or put under in order to do so. Just the thought of a catheter for instance makes my mind reel. I avoid locker rooms entirely and change in as sequestered a bathroom stall as I can get. I can’t help how I am, though I try my hardest every day to live a normal life. I am mentally disabled.
The TSA search procedures are deathly frightening to me and if I were to submit to a pat down (as the full body scan is out of the question) I don’t know what would happen. I would be in such mental anguish I don’t even want to think about it. The TSA search procedures are unnecessary. When I had to enter the hospital in-patient ward for an extended stay they had to search me to make sure I had no dangerous items. That search involved taking off most of my clothes. I just about went into catatonics at that alone, but it was something I could do. That search was less invasive than what the TSA is now routinely doing, yet just as effective.
I have done nothing wrong. I am a good citizen. I always travel the speed limit, I never break the law, I don’t pirate, I mind my own business. If these procedures take hold everywhere what am I to do, how am I to get anywhere like everybody else? Why am I being punished for doing nothing wrong? Despite my belief that I have to face the world just as everyone else does, I can’t help but think that the TSA is discriminating against me and others like me. I want to travel freely, and I’m unable to do so because too many people are willing to go as far as it takes to give them a false peace of mind.
Every day we take risks. We take greater risks driving to the airport than we do once we’re actually in the airport and in the air. I take risks every time I enter a social situation. Taking a risk is part of every day life. This type of security theater is not going to make the risk any less significant. There are still ways around the procedures. In fact, it is increasing the risk as it lulls passengers and others into a false sense of security. It is impossible to eliminate the risk of any activity to zero, though we can try all sorts of crazy stunts to do so. That we need to eliminate the risk is not an effective argument.
This treatment of the public is unacceptable and degrading for everyone. We are not all terrorists and shouldn’t be treated like such. Everyone’s dignity needs to be respected while ensuring security, and the TSA has forgotten that.
The opt out day that’s coming tomorrow is not enough. We need to stand up against this tyrannical privacy invasion and show the TSA every day that we won’t stand for it. We read about extraordinary people taking extraordinary measures to not have to go through these procedures. Those people should be all of us, we should all be doing this. If everyone would raise their voice where it mattered, at the security check points, this would stop.
Your costumed performer,
Asher
Security theater doesn’t make us safer.
The FBI seems to be manufacturing their own “terrorists” now as a way to get (most of) us to comply. Terrorism a go-go.
I’m sorry that we’ve let it get bad enough to threaten you like this. I’d fix it if I knew how.
You can help fix it by helping me raise awareness on this issue. And by encouraging people to fight the TSA at the airport security gates, and to not let them be ‘manhandled’ by the TSA. We’ve got to do the best we can all do. Please share my story and this issue with others. Thanks so much for the comment.
Thanks, Asher. You linked to this story on my site at FedUpFlyers.org, but I didn’t see it till just now. I appreciate you sharing it with our readers over there and helping others understand what’s really going on and what it truly represents. There’s nothing redeeming about any of the TSA’s nonsense. Even for those who don’t come to the screening checkpoint with preexisting issues like what you’ve described here, many are coming away damaged by the process itself! Please stay engaged and let’s run these traitors off before they go one step further in their tyrannical assault against the traveling public – and every other law-abiding citizen.
If I ever absolutely have to fly and I am pulled over for additional screening, I am refusing the AIT and the pat down. I don’t care if I miss my flight, I don’t care if I’m arrested; that’s what they count on. I will do what I have to do and refuse to be seen or touched in sensitive areas. I hear in 2013 it will become the primary screening method and that scares me. I’m trying to raise awareness of how this is affecting people like me and sexual abuse survivors as best I can, but I have a small voice. I feel that for some people who are on the fence this may help them decide that these procedures have gone too far. Thank you for commenting and for letting my link remain on your website, it is invaluable. You can help me raise more awareness about this particular issue by employing my personal story and sharing it with others such as on Facebook.
Again, thank you so much for letting your website link to mine, it has helped me raise more awareness than going it alone. Let’s all fight the TSA on this until these procedures are gone.
Asher, thank you so much for your lucid and effective description of the problem at hand. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and I cannot adequately describe just how problematic it would be for me to go through a “porn-scanner”, let alone receive a TSA “pat-down”. I have not flown since my initial TSA encounter in 2003 – and I am resolved not to travel via plane now. I am so triggered by the new TSA procedures that I dissociate when reading about them. I don’t fly, not only because I refuse to allow myself to be sexually abused by TSA, but because I would be so very angry by such a scan or pat-down that I would implode, if not explode. I travel via Amtrak, and that works for me, however TSA has recently announced that they intend to begin screening all travelers – whether they travel by train, boat, plane, bus or even public transportation. How in the world will I manage?
Thank you so much for sharing your story, it means a lot to me and to others who share this kind of problem. I’m trying to raise awareness about this issue and the plight of individuals who suffer or are suffering (in terms of travel options) at the hands of TSA. You can help me raise more awareness by sharing this article with others if you can.
Again, thank you very much for sharing what is surely a difficult thing to talk about. You have helped expand what I’m trying to do.
We are on the same page, Asher. There are many who relate to your situation, many who need TSA to change their screening tactics. You are not alone!
I own an Internet support board for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and I will gladly post a link to this page; maybe some of my members will post comments here.
Thank you for the support. That would be awesome for you to do that. I encourage everyone to comment, we need all the voices we can get.