The Transportation Security Administration will stop using the word “anomaly” to describe transgender passengers, the agency said Friday.
The agency, which has removed the word from its website, agreed to stop using the term after Shadow Petoscary, a transgender woman in Orlando, complained online about her experience last month at an airport. The woman protested after airport security held her for 40 minutes because of an “anomaly” detected when she walked through the full body scanner.
She tweeted the entire interaction:
“I am being held by the TSA in Orlando because of an “anomaly” (my penis)” Petoscary tweeted last month.
The TSA replied that it would investigate.
“.@JennyBoylan TSA takes all potential civil rights violations very seriously. We are looking into the situation now for further information,” the agency said.
The TSA says in its procedures that it screens transgender people as “he or she presents themselves at the security checkpoint.” And now it also pledges to review its training policy so that officers are more sensitive to these passengers.
The change was cheered by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Transgender people deserve respect, safety, and equal treatment everywhere. Good move by @TSA,” she tweeted.
