we're gonna rattle this ghost town

Feb. 28, 2012 at 5:00pm with 43 notes

Reblogged from fuckyeahftms

I just wanted to share with you guys a situation that I (or rather, my best friend, considering he’s the trans guy and I’m a cis girl) unfortunately experienced last Sunday at Heathrow airport (London).

I had already heard and read a lot about these scanners before, but I was unaware they were used anywhere outside the USA, so it was a complete surprise to actually see them there, and even worse when my friend got singled out after passing through the metal detector and told to undergo the scan.

He started panicking, obviously, because he’s not fluent in English and didn’t know what to do or to say when the machine apparently indicated there was something “suspicious” about him and two people started searching him. It was incredibly distressing, they didn’t even look at him, it was like he were merely an object, and when they started touching and rubbing his chest he got extremely upset. The two members of the staff looked confused at his flat chest and, considering he was unable to communicate with them I explained he was wearing a compression shirt, and felt forced to use female pronouns while doing so.

Without even glancing at me, but obviously hearing what I’d said, they immediately said they were going to do a private search (all this speaking to each other, and not taking us into account at all).

At this point I just said “No, no, no, what?” and for the first time one of them looked at me and said “It’s okay, you can come with her”.

Cue them dragging us to an empty room and making him take his T-shirt off so they could see the binder. It was fucking awful and I just kept saying “It’s just like a bra, it’s just like a bra”, until they let us go.

To be fair, they were quite professional about it in the sense that they didn’t make any nasty comments or attack him on a personal level, and after all, they were just doing their job. Nevertheless, it was terrifying and brusque, we didn’t expect it at all and it really upset him.

I am sorry for this post being so long and ~emotional~, I simply wanted to give my personal account on the subject (although of course I have no idea how horrid it must’ve been for him) and to ask whether any of you guys have been in a similar situation and if you have any ideas regarding how things like this could be avoided.

I’ve gone through full-body scanners while wearing a binder multiple times. Twice, my chest brought up questions. The first time, I heard a worker say, “gauze pads,” so I assume my chest looked like I had gauze pads taped to it. The second time, I didn’t hear anything, but probably something similar was assumed. Both times, a worker did a pat-down of my chest (swiping the side of his hand between my, ums, then under them, all done quickly and professionally on top of my shirt). The worker then wiped his hand with a pad that I guess was to detect chemicals or gunpowder or something, and then swiped my hands with another of the same type of pad.

It was uncomfortable and I was a little shaky after, because I cannot stand people touching my chest, but nothing at all like the experience you described. It probably helps that I was able to communicate with the officers and tell them “oh, yeah, no, I’m wearing a chest binder, it’s like a super tight tank top that flattens out my chest, it’s just an aesthetic choice.”