Peter. Calm DOWN.No one wants to touch your weiner. BELIEVE ME…

My goodness, I hope not!I guess Porno Pete thinks gayz should be seen at hardcore leather events and not touched.

um, actually was talking about a similar issue with TSA patdowns.And the rank Cis-Gender Priveleged stance being taken.
Same gender TSA Agents are asigned patdowns. Male/Male and Female/Female but what about Transgender? Or Intersex?
Because it is inappropriate for either a male or a female to pat me down.  

TSA AgentTeh Peter’s dream job.

He forgot some scare quotes.“Isn’t it just as inappropriate for a ‘gay’ male TSA agent to pat down male travelers as it is for a “normal”, heterosexual male TSA agent to pat down female travelers?
He’s not normal (and probably not heterosexual, but I digress) so he has nothing to worry about.

And Children?I saw this disturbing video about a three-year old being patted down and screaming.
http://www.myvidster.com/video…
I would be more concerned with pedophiles getting a job with the TSA.  The Peter is a jackass.

By that logic, straight male TSA agentscan’t feel up pat down gay men, either.  
So will gays be prohibited from being passengers?  Can’t have women TSA agents fondle pat them down.  Can’t have straight men do it.  And of course the reverse of it all for lesbians.  Bi’s are obviously confused and can be caressed patted down by anyone.  Maybe each airport can have a special “unisex” grabber patter-downer for trans people…except the gay ones.
One point I’d really like to make in the whole bizarre discussion surrounding scanners and groping pat downs is the false solution of, “no one is forcing people to fly” as recently reiterated by the TSA Director:
For many, it’s either fly when your boss says fly or find a new job.  And those are a little scarce right now, you know?  So for most law-abiding, innocent until proven guilty Americans, the only practical choice is which airport’s frotterizers TSA Agents have warmer hands.

That is exactly why our family will not flyWe teach our kids that NO ONE can touch their bodies except for us their parents, and their doctor when we are present.  Their bodies are theirs alone and here the government is teaching everyone that well, that’s not true.  Used to be that you only gave up the sovereignty of your body to the government when you were suspected of a crime.
What the TSA is doing is very, very wrong.  It traumatizes children and desensitizes them for other touching by authority figures.  

I agree with you on all of the above….However, I believe the point of Pam’s post was to point out:  1) more of LaBarbera’s insanity; 2) the fact that he’s trying to make anti-gay political hay out of an issue where none exists.  On the first point, he will surely succeed in showing he’s insane.  On the second point, he will surely, as always, fail to make a rational argument.

Peter’s date with Hutchlast weekend must have been a real disappointment if this is all he’s writing about “the morning after”.

As a former TSA screener: Beware the Straight White guysI know of several incidents where male heterosexual screeners discussed and planned out creating false readings on the walk-thru metal detectors so that they could get off on watching female and transsexual passengers being felt up.  In spite of filing several complaints, none of my coworkers were disciplined; one was even promoted to supervisor shortly after I filed a complaint.
Of course many of them would also “tip the mag” on anyone they had a prejudice against anyway.  
Although there were days where I was afraid that hearing one more appeal to white privilege would make me run screaming from the airport.  As a trainee I was taught to avoid additional screening for whites, as they were the loudest complainers:
“But I’m White!”
“I’m in a business suit and wear a rolex!  Can’t you see I’m important!”
If they wanted to do combos, the idiots would add a “pass the spotlight” argument:
“Why aren’t you searching him/her?  Can’t you see he/she is Arab/Muslim/flying coach/doesn’t speak English/not an American/(insert bigoted remark here.)
I finally “got it” when a passenger who was selected for random screening threw his shoes at me and yelled, “WHAT! Do I look like Osama bin Ladin?”
To which I replied, “No, but you kinda look like Timothy McVeigh.”
After putting an ice pack on my forehead, my boss wrote me up for poor customer service. (And I wrote up my resume.)
Oh, one thing I never got about these whole body scanners – if everyone goes thru the metal detector the TSA can rule out anyone who has a detonator.  And anyone who’s even been in the same house as an explosive will light up the explosive scanners like a Xmas tree.  So why the heck do they need to stage a grope-fest anyway?

A deflating disappointment…Just when Peter thought he was getting somewhere, Hutch asked him to hold up his compact mirror while he plucked his eyebrows.

This Bullshit is a Violation of the 4th AmendmentFourth Amendment: guards against searches, arrests, and seizures of property without a specific warrant or a “probable cause” to believe a crime has been committed. Some rights to privacy have been inferred from this amendment and others by the Supreme Court.
The Constitution doesn’t have a clause that reads:
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.”
Drug testing at work without evidence of being under the influence is a violation of that right.
So too is this.
But the last few times I’ve flown have been Gray Hound of the air unpleasant experience any how.
So f*ck the Airlines.  I’d rather drive and see the country instead of fly over it.  Particularly since the corporations are turning it in to one mall clone after another and I’d like to see it before it is all homogenized.

So who would pat me downI’m TS. Maybe we’d all just get put on the “do not fly list” rather than blow their minds trying to determine who can pat us down. Fuck you, Peter. Fuck you very, very much…
Z

The courts have held that the 4th Amendment doesn’t applyBecause of the doctrine of “implied consent.” Airport security has been challenged ever since it first started in the early 70s. The Supreme Court has (that I can find) never ruled on airport security, but lower federal courts have held that, by buying a ticket with the knowledge of security measures, you are implicitly consenting to be searched. Because you have legally given consent to be searched, you have voluntarily waived your 4th Amendment protection against being searched without consent.
Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, the only way to invoke protection against search and seizure at the airport is to not fly.

CorrectionAs of August 10, 2007, there is no implied consent to airport searches: Court Says Travelers Can’t Avoid Airport Searches:

The constitutionality of an airport screening search, however, does not depend on consent, see Biswell, 406 U.S. at 315, and requiring that a potential passenger be allowed to revoke consent to an ongoing airport security search makes little sense in a post-9/11 world. Such a rule would afford terrorists multiple opportunities to attempt to penetrate airport security by “electing not to fly” on the cusp of detection until a vulnerable portal is found. This rule would also allow terrorists a low-cost method of detecting systematic vulnerabilities in airport security, knowledge that could be extremely valuable in planning future attacks. Likewise, given that consent is not required, it makes little sense to predicate the reasonableness of an administrative airport screening search on an irrevocable implied consent theory. Rather, where an airport screening search is otherwise reasonable and conducted pursuant to statutory authority, 49 U.S.C. § 44901, all that is required is the passenger’s election to attempt entry into the secured area of an airport. See Biswell, 406 U.S. at 315; 49 C.F.R. § 1540.107. Under current TSA regulations and procedures, that election occurs when a prospective passenger walks through the magnetometer or places items on the conveyor belt of the x-ray machine. The record establishes that Aukai elected to attempt entry into the posted secured area of Honolulu International Airport when he walked through the magnetometer, thereby subjecting himself to the airport screening process.

In other words, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the very moment you start the screening process, you give up your every right as an American citizen until the screening process has been completed.

Two issuesFirst, aren’t TSA agents worried about excessive exposure to X-rays?  Yes, a lot of TSA agents are jerks — small-minded people who get off on having a bit of power over others for once.  But a lot of them are simply regular folks who joined TSA because they needed a job.  Now they will be exposed to extra radiation for several hours every day.  My guess is that in 15 years or so we’ll start seeing class-action lawsuits when the cancer rates of former TSA agents skyrockets.
On a completely separate issue — as a rather brazen and shameless gay man who flies at least once a month, what if I not only demand a full pat down, but also pick out the TSA agent I want to do it?
Will the agents lose it if point to one and say, “Hey cutie-pie, can I get a strip search from you?” or “Ohh, daddy bear, you look just right for a pat down!”
Once they yank me out of line and take me into the grope zone, start talking in a really loud voice.  ”You missed a spot!”, “Oh, that feels really good.  Do it again.” “Say, I have an old groin injury that’s acting up. Since you’re down there, would you mind massaging it for a moment?”
Maybe I’ll even fold a card and stick it in my crack.  Imagine the agent’s surprise (and delight), when they pull it out to read, “Dear Mr. TSA, Thank you for such a thorough search.”
When it’s all over, walk out with a big grin on your face and say in a loud voice (with an exaggerated lisp), “That was the best full-body search I EVER had!”   Then, just before heading to the gate, turn back to the agent and do telephone hand gesture to your ear and whisper, “Call me!”
Either they tone down the searches or one of them gets rough and I slap them with a law suit.  Win-win.  

I don’t believe I can quite endorse that last sentence…If you’re a woman, then to have a woman do it is 100% appropriate. It makes no difference if a woman’s history is trans or cis.
If it’s an issue of anatomy, pre-op trans people are already practiced at keeping the wrong stuff inconspicuous. Men bind and women tuck. These are essential skills for negotiating trans existence in the cis world.
Your statement has more relevance for genderqueer/neutral/so-called 3rd gender people, who can’t be fit into the binary. For them, yeah, I agree, this is unjust.
Bigender people are able to present in the gender that will cause them the least inconvenience in a given situation; they’re not really outside the binary, they’re just on both sides. Not sure about intersex people, but my impression is that the majority of them go with a binary gender, like transsexuals or cis people.
In which cases, how much of an issue would it be? Nobody’s going to actually grab your crotch, are they? (ummm… are they?) But even if someone has the wrong stuff in her panties, hopefully she’ll be adept at the technique of keeping it undetected. Yes, undetected even if someone is grabbing crotches, if the technique is applied skillfully. Same goes for worries over the naked imaging equipment.
The only time it would actually be a problem for binary trans people is with strip searches/cavity searches. That would seriously suck.

Not sure about the law.From what I understand, the government has to obey the 4th Amendment and private companies don’t.  That’s why you can be treated like a criminal when you are trying to find a job and they can do all sorts of searches and drug testing.  The thing with this being the TSA though is that the government is allowed to do all sorts of things at the borders.  I have no idea if airports count as that since they are ports of entry and have customs stations in a lot of them but I suspect that that’s the legal reasoning that is allowing them to do this.  I’d be interested in seeing if the naked scan machines are only in the international airports.  If they have them in any regional airports then there may be more of a chance to successfully challenge them legally.  In the mean time, I do agree with your kilt idea.  As William Wallace allegedly said, “Freedom!”  ;^)

Let me see if I understand thisWould a valid analogy to this:

In other words, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the very moment you start the screening process, you give up your every right as an American citizen until the screening process has been completed.

Be:
Opening your front door and telling the police officers knocking that they may come inside?
Because I’m pretty sure there’d be bit of a fuss if an employer required their employees to do that on a regular basis as a condition of employment, yet that’s exactly what happens to business air travelers.
If so, humans have truly become second-class citizens in America.

Much of what you wroteI read as being a slightly juvenile harmless fantasizing about a situation beyond any of our control.  Like imagining your boss stepping into the elevator shaft.   This, however,

Then, just before heading to the gate, turn back to the agent and do telephone hand gesture to your ear and whisper, “Call me!”

Is golden.  Thanks for the smile, I needed it today.  

Obsidian knives?the Stone Age solution to hi-tech security

Nope, rocks show up on screeningObsidian knives – and any kinda rock or stones – show up on X-ray machines clear as a bell.  I know ’cause I’ve taken a few off passengers.
And hand weapons like knives are so passe anyway.  Anyone who travels by plane these days knows that disarming a knife-wielding idiot is certainly a better option than having the plane shot down by an F-15.
A prime example of this is the shoebomber – by the time the plane landed the fool was sedated and tied down with so many belts, ties and headset cords that the paramedics took 15 minutes to cut him out of his seat.
So, nah, the only thing I’d worry ’bout would be explosives – and those can be easily detected with scanners the TSA has had in place for years.  
Perv-O-peep and Grab-n-grope are useless.  
Worse, they alienate the passengers and airport staff; why they would try to piss off the very people they need to point out suspicious behavior is beyond me.  
But Hey! If we can substitute real threat prevention with security theater that puts $money$ into the hands of Chertoff and his defense contractor buddies, why not?