FOX's Red Eye: Transphobia out of control rant about airport security

uhhhh.... its Faux 'News'...

The day they have an intelligent news story about the GLBTI community that isn't filled with hate, illogic and lies is the day....heck they're never doing that.  

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by: Gina9223 @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 05:55:47 AM CDT

Find the hidden penises, but dont worry about the hidden bombs

Wow... are our anti-terrorist heads so imbecilic as to think concentrating on looking for men dressed as women is a good plan when FEMALE TERRORISTS ALREADY EXIST?

While looking for transgender people not passing so well they'll let through women who are not crossdressed strapped with explosives.

Cause female suicide bombers already exist!

So concentrating on the crossdressers and not checking every male and female too is making us less safe!

What would you rather, search for people in skirts being male or instead just search everyone for bombs? Apparently the war on crossdressers is more important than the war on terror and finding hidden male body parts is more important than finding hidden explosives!

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by: battybattybats @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 06:57:59 AM CDT

Remind me again

Remind me again
How many terrorists have pretended to be women to gain access to aircraft? How many were sucessful?
I think the answer is zero to both. Isn't the usual justification given for profiling that statistics support that risk level being higher - that there is some correlation between a characteristic and a level of risk? Well - present that evidence. Not just these knuckleheads - the government should justify it's assertion of the level of risk if they're going to single out a group for increased scrutiny and impinge upon their right to travel freely.

It just seems absurd on the face of it - someone who is trying to pass unnoticed is going to do this by drawing more attention to themselves. They're going to present ID documents that raise questions and alter their appearance in ways that increase scrutiny? In what cartoon universe do these people exist?

I'd venture to guess that many, many terrorists have attempted to evade detection by posing as Anglo Christian Men.

Fortunately - terrorist groups would never, ever just have female members pose as .......... females to have the suppossed advantage getting through security! There have been no female suicide bombers and no female members of terrorist groups like Bader Meinhoff, Red Brigades or Symbianise Liberation Army  - nope - none at all.

If these are the preconceptions brought to assessing risk levels - that women can't be part of any such group - and that terrorists are incredibly stupid - then yeah - we are at greater risk of people dieing in fiery crashes.  

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by: Kathleen @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 07:22:28 AM CDT

No one could ever pose as white christian

Their lack of a shining aura of Jesus protection would immediately tip off true believers to the heretic in their midst.

Sadly, they really do think like this. It's why evangelical kids are often heavy suicide risks because they are told from birth that everyone can "see" them falling out of faith or having sin, so when they start to doubt God or feel the stirrings of puberty, they automatically get hyper-anxious about how everyone else in the Church can just see the sin on their face.

Plus, when is it not hilarious to make an outgroup's life even more miserable for no purpose whatsoever? It's all security theatre, so why not discourage those filthy transsexuals from flying. It makes our underpaid hitler-wannabes dicks hard to exercise the power and at the end of the day, isn't that what America is all about?

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by: Cerberus @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 07:48:27 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Damn

Wait till they see the number of trans people working as TSA screeners in San Francisco.

It must scare them to death that I work in the Executive Office of one of the larger airports in the country. I'll have to try to be more obvious to enhance the effect.

One strives to stay in character.  

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by: Kathleen @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 08:05:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well

Everyone knows that San Francisco isn't REAL America, same with Chicago and anywhere else where screeners aren't majority white.

Seriously though, it is funny how all the outgroup belonging TSA screeners pretty much do the routine job as they're ordered to and don't bother to really harass anyone, but it's that one white male in the group who likes to be a dick.

The one time I was harassed on my last set of flights it was by the one white guy at Chicago International who tried to "oh lookie here, drugs, we need you in the back room over some Danish alka seltzer. Luckily the embarrassment flustered him enough that he didn't decide to take it out on me.

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by: Cerberus @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 10:09:27 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's a shame they never knew their grandmothers

http://www.life.com/image/2628...

really great photos of women in WWII

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by: Kathleen @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 19:52:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

First off...

That dude is stupid.  Secondly, what terrorists?  I'm assuming this is still geared towards the middle-east.  I'm fairly confident those engaged in Jihad against the U.S. would not cross the threshold of a man dressed in woman's clothing in order to blow up a plane.  I'm no Islamic Extremist, but I think they frown on that and would rather send a man, then a woman and/or child.

It all comes down to educating the public.  The UN is saying that trans people are harassed disproportionately and that needs to stop.  

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by: P4ttythe3p3rf3ct @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 08:20:51 AM CDT

Having LIVED in Amherst for years, not just "been there many times"

I love the place and wouldn't mind moving back down to the Pioneer Valley after the kids are finished w/school here in Maine. Seriously.

Can we request that this yutz be in charge of a daily travel segment? Seems that if she/FauxNews pan an area that it should  go on my MUST SEE places! ;)

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

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by: Louise @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 09:14:08 AM CDT

Notice how

trans men are excluded from the discussion? Most are stealth. But, more importantly we are too economically disadvantaged to afford flying or traveling in general. Excluding the notable exceptions, of course.

This is just another phobic bush/cheny policy designed to out lgbt individuals.

Just like the security procedures arrests are primarily for drugs.

'Isn't that convenient??'

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by: pantherq @ Sat Oct 24, 2009 at 11:04:09 AM CDT

If they were really playing it for laughs . . .

. . . it wasn't terribly funny to poke fun at trans people.  For that matter, it's not terribly funny to make jokes about other oppressed people, but it's still common.  And some people still do laugh at insulting ethnic and racial jokes, don't they?

The FOX folks and other right wing jerks do not have an exclusive when it comes to making jokes at our expense.  Bill Maher can be fairly unfunny (example, he commented on Bush White House lawyer Harriet Myers as possibly being trans based on her looks, to the delight of his audience), and there are always the liberal jerks who take swipes at Anne Coulter's adam's apple, also engendering laughs from the more sophomoric among them.

Then again, if they were really playing it for laughs, it would have been poking fun at the insane stupidity of the surrender to terrorism represented by all the security checks at airports that only harrass people, or the other 'security' things that don't really provide security but only violate civil rights.

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by: Joann Prinzivalli @ Sun Oct 25, 2009 at 05:52:16 AM CDT