It’s been a long time in the making, but the TSA’s new airport screening guidelines will officially go into effect in January.
The agency received $18.6 million earlier this year to improve the accuracy of its “Advanced Imaging Technology” units.
TSA screenings will no longer be gender-based
The current system has agents manually select a gender for each passenger. The method then scans for any abnormalities based on the person’s assigned gender. But agents don’t always get it right, and so countless incidents of misgendering have led to unnecessary and invasive pat-downs of transgender passengers.
There have been hundreds of complaints against the TSA in regards to the outdated system, including harassment.
More improvements at the airport are still to come
In addition to the new TSA screening guidelines, the Biden administration announced reforms to protect trans and other non-cisgender citizens while traveling earlier this year. Chief among those changes was this year’s adoption of the “X” gender marker on official documents like passports and for travelers enrolled in TSA’s PreCheck system.
by travelers, for travelers.
