For most folks, going through airport security consists of getting their bags scanned and going through a quick screening for explosives and they’re set to travel (as long as they did not carry any explosives). However, for transgender passengers, the experience is very different. When transgender passengers get screened for explosives, they often set the scanner off, resulting in an officer (not necessarily the same gender) patting them down. This is because the TSA’s scanning system scans males and females differently. The airport security protocol requires the designation of the gender of the passenger (which is usually based on his/her appearance) into the machine. If the passenger’s body does not conform to the expected gender anatomy, the scanner will go off. This is an issue for transgender passengers because their bodies may not conform to the gender pre-determined by the officer which would trigger an alarm. This is also an issue for gender-nonconforming passengers as their clothing (e.g. boxers) may confuse the scanner if they are being scanned as female. This is especially an issue for transgender passengers of color as they are more strictly policed for violating gender norms. The triggering of the alarm and the extra inspection is very uncomfortable and thus causes many transgender and gender-nonconforming passengers to limit their traveling.

This strongly relates to the soap dispenser issue at bathrooms at Facebook from the “Ethics in Design” article. In the airport security case, transgender passengers have to go through extra inspection and the humiliation that comes with it when the scanning system determines that the passenger does not conform to the pre-determined gender norms. In the soap dispenser case, the soap dispenser provides soap to the white employee but not to the black employee. In both cases, a minority group has been mistreated due to a design flaw of the system.

I think that both of these issues are issues of an unethical design. According to the first article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Just because a person identifies him/herself differently doesn’t mean that they lose their rights and thus do not deserve to be mistreated in this manner. In the situation of the soap dispenser, I think that the solution is not that hard to reach – Simply provide a soap dispenser that provides soap when it detects a hand (not only a white hand). However, I think that it is more difficult to solve the airport security issue. This is because in order to thoroughly fix this problem, either the scanning system needs to be fixed, or a different line to scan transgender passengers needs to be created. Both of these solutions require a large amount of funding which is likely out of the TSA’s interests. However, it’s not like we cannot start on a solution. Officers can be educated about these situations so that when they encounter such situations, they can be nice about it and make the experience more pleasant for transgender passengers. This way, the security concerns can still be addressed without humiliating the transgender passengers. However, a long-term solution should be provided in the long run so that transgender passengers don’t have to have a much more troubling experience than other passengers.