Crossdressers-Haven.com

I know there was a lot of concern after the TSA's recent escalation of screening procedures, enhanced pat downs and so forth. I thought it would be useful to have a thread where people could describe their own firsthand experiences (as opposed descriptions of the "I read somewhere that ..." or "I heard someone ..." variety.)

I flew to Kona via Honolulu from Seattle a little over two weeks ago, and returned a week later. For both trips I was dressed as I am every day: entirely feminine, though I opted for simple comfortable travel clothes with pants rather than a skirt or dress. What was different from any prior flight I'd taken in the past two years? Nothing. I walked through the same old metal detector, not one of the new scanners, and didn't get a second glance. No invasive questions. No pat down. It wasn't an international flight so take that for what it's worth, but I didn't see a huge escalation in travel hassles.

I suspect a lot of it is luck of the draw, and I don't doubt there are horror stories, but it was pretty clear they weren't looking for an excuse to cause me trouble. In fact, what's interesting about my experience since I started traveling en femme is that I get substantially less attention now than I used to traveling drab. I was always the person "randomly selected" for extra attention before (and if pressed they'll admit that it isn't really random, they have discretion to profile under the banner of random selection.)

I was traveling with ID gendering me as female for this trip, but my next experiment in February will take me out of the country traveling on my passport which identifies me as male. I'll follow up with details from that trip when I get back. In the meantime, safe and pleasant travels everyone!

Hi. I just made the trip to Montreal and back for surgery. My passport gendered me as female, and that matched the information on my ticket and boarding pass. I had no trouble at all. No scanners, just the old metal detectors. Went through them once at OKC, again on the way home from Montreal plus customs, and no problems.

This contrasts to my experience in 2007. That time I flew to Chicago to Honolulu non-stop, then on the return leg, flew from Honolulu to LA, to Alaska, then from Alaska to OKC via Dallas. Everytime I boarded the plane on a new leg, I was pulled to the side for a "random" check, of course in full view of everyone. One good thing was that the pat down and hand screening was done by a woman rather than a man, but there was nothing random about it. At the time, my ID still had a M on it, and that may have been the difference since the two items (name and gender) did not agree.

I think it is even more important given the latest regulations to be sure that your travel ID and your information you must file on your ticket 72 hours before leaving, agree as to name and gender. If you travel on a male passport, then make sure it agrees with your ticket information. At that point you are in compliance with the regulations, and are not "hiding" anything. Incidentally, they do know what Trangendered means, and I found very few pot hole.

When we returned from Montreal, we just missed a furor caused by a stripper after publicity who arrived at the OKC airport for a flight, and stripped to her bra and panties in public for passing through TSA. Surprisingly enough there were photographers on hand (amazing, eh).
Silly, eh?
Carolynn

Know your rights

http://transequality.org/Resources/KYR_TSA.pdf

Print it and carry it with you if you wish.

I also have had no problems. Yesterday I came back from Bulgaria, through Amsterdam and Detroit to Green Bay. In Amsterdam they use the new full body scanners, they have had them for several months now. My ticket info and passport both show M, but I was wearing a dress, heels, etc.
This time they also patted me down, but the guy was very polite about it. He was looking at the monitor that showed the areas he was supposed to check, there is one picture for male and one for female indicating different "search patterns", and he said to me "I'm not really sure where to start." And then he asked whether my breasts were real, and I thought that was very generous (only in my wildest dreams would I have real breasts like this), and whether I minded him touching me anywhere. But he was polite and courteous, only doing what needed to be done, and I'm sure felt more embarrassed than I did.

But what I want to know, how do you gals get passports and drivers licenses that indicate female? And do they have your real names, or your femme names?

I got my passport with an Female on it by filling out the proper paperwork, getting letters from my therapists and doctors saying I was in transition, and going for surgery. It is a temporary passport, with a duration of two years. I will have it converted to a full issue passport after my birth certificate is changed, submitting a copy of the letter from the doctor with it.

I do not know of any other way to have a passport changed other than having the paperwork with the I's dotted and the T's crossed.

As far as the DL is concerned, there are several states that will put an F for gender if you are a preop in transition, and have the letters from your therapist and doctor stating so. Oklahoma is not one of those, so I have had to wait until surgery was over. Nice to have the right documentation. I still need to get Social Security and Medicare on board, which may be a more difficult matter.

Carolynn

It's been awhile since last flight en fem, but all three of them were after 911. I don't have anything identifying me as female. I got double taken by the TSA persons each time, but never had anything extra done to me. I had valid ID and met travel requirements. I followed the rules. What are they going to do?

If In the new rules, I do exactly as I have always done ad they decide they want to do extra? Okay... what do I care? They aren't going to shoot me and if they cause me to miss my plane? They will remedy the problem fairly.
Life can be simple if you don't make it overly complicated without even getting to that point.

I'm glad none of our sisters here have had horror stories to tell - yet. Still, there are literally hundreds of horror stories posted on a "Boycott Flying" page in Facebook. Stories of screaming terrified toddlers, rape victims, a woman had to remove a prosthetic breast. it's all there, and it's all so very unnecessary and totally unconstitutional.

Even my brain-injured brother was foolish enough to fly this holiday season, (normally he takes the train), and yes, he was forced to dance for the gestapo while in the Radiation cage.

Hugs,

Bernice

I definitely agree with you about most of it being unnecessary and unconstitutional, unfortunately that is true of about 90% of the federal governments behavior and at least 50% of state and locals.
Short of having another revolution, I'm not sure there's much to do about it. What's really depressing, is that the US is actually one of the best places, the rest of the world is a good deal worse.
So now I'm ranting, and I'll stop
Ultimately it's our own fault, we keep electing people who keep grabbing more power. For my own part, I'd rather take the one in a million chance of being hijacked by a terrorist than the 100% chance of being terrorized by our own government.

There is the one in a million chance of being hijacked by a terrorist and used as a missile to kill others, vs being inconvenienced by our government. If my being patted down prevents someguy with a bomb in his underwear from killing me and everyone else in the plane, well I don't equate the two in terms of terror.

All that being said, we, not just our government but all of us, have a strange reaction to risk. After all the most dangerous part of any airline flight is probably the drive to the airport.

The excelent Meg posted this on her blog a few days ago

"My wife sent me an e-mail. She send mass e-mails. I don't.

This one had the subject A PSA from the TSA and went as follows:

Year to date statistics on Airport screening from the Department of Homeland Security
Terrorist Plots Discovered 0
Transvestites 133
Hernias 1,485
Hemorrhoid Cases 3,172
Enlarged Prostates 8,249
Breast Implants 59,350
Natural Blondes 3


Should I tell her I'm one of 133?"[/i]

Read more of her blog on http://youcancallmemeg.blogspot.com/

there are 3 natural blondes? who are the other 2?

But the thing about the enlarged prostates brings up a good point. Maybe we can have some doctors running the full body scanners, then people won't need to go to the hospital. In fact, we can probably screen for cancer and everything else with these things. Just think about the savings to the health industry. And while waiting for the flight, you can just get some last minute surgical procedures taken care of quickly, or get a few new prescriptions instead of wasting time at the airport bar.
Actually, I think that health care bill has all of this in it already, but I'm not sure because nobody has read it. Tell those pesky republicans that they can't repeals it if they haven't read it.

Good morning ladies,
Yes, i know it's been a while...I'm still alive and enjoying life everyday.

Recently I took a new position at work and will be doing some travelling. Short trips, consisting of three or four days a month will be my new venue. Can you imagine what instantly popped into my mind?

I started to look into what travelling en-femme will be like. I've not boarded a plane as Kyra yet, but i'm seriously looking forward to it. I know about the new scanners at airports, and I don't really care what they reveal. The TSA website briefly touches on gender issues, but from what I can tell, as long as you're within the letter of the law (real name and credentials, no WMDs, etc.) I don't think it will be an issue. I will call the airline ahead of time and make sure before I head out, but again, I don't think I will have any problems.

What really spurned this post, is this:
I will be travelling into areas that I'm not familiar with. Where can I go? What can I see? Who will I meet?
Remember your Mantra, Kyra..."Always be aware of your surroundings. Don't put yourself into dangerous situations..."

So I turn to my sisters who have more experience than I. I like being prepared and obviously want to avoid awkward situations.
Whilst travelling, what do you do? Where do you go?

Hi Kyra,
I can certainly comment on this, I've travelled all over the place lately. Usually I am wearing a dress or skirt, I really hate sitting on a plane is pants. I've never had any trouble travelling, the airports, car rental places, hotels, etc see people from all over the world and really just plain don't care what you are wearing. Their biggest concern about you wearing a dress is whether you will sue them or cause some trouble about being patted down (or felt up?) in the wrong way.
When you get to where you are going, I would say that you should stick to the "nicer" places. The hotel, shopping mall, resteraunts, etc. don't care what you wear, but avoid the joints where the "low lifes" hang out. I'm sure you were going to do this anyway.
I find that when you visit the same location repeatedly, everyone recognizes you more easily and really treates you well. So when you find a place you like, make a point of returning. I'm absolutely convinced that I get special treatment in many places where they know me and recongnize me as "that guy who wears a dress and leaves big tips."
I really think you will enjoy your new opprtunities, have fun and good luck.

Eddy Izzard agrees with me...

http://globalspin.com/2011/01/why-i-won ... ent-153896

Crossdressers en-femme often share one similarity with cancer survivors. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201101 ... ning.shtml

To me, it is not about whether or not you are personally singled out for abuse. Abuse is abuse is abuse, and abuse (by any government) is still wrong.

Hugs,

Bernice

I recently flew from Charlotte to Los Angeles, and while not 100% "en femme", I was wearing makeup, earrings, and a push-up bra with silicon inserts under my cotton sweater. After standing for the full-body scanner, they insisted on a pat-down, to which I said, "I'm certain you all enjoy doing this about as much as we enjoy having it done." I loved it when they swabbed my hands. I told them unless the moisturizer and foundation I used that morning were issues, they wouldn't likely find anything. Of course, they didn't find anything. They didn't even ask about the inserts in my bra, which is what I supposed got them started on me.

I've recently made it a habit to arrive a few hours ahead of the scheduled boarding time, specifically to endure this kind of thing. It's happened when I was 100% "en drab", as well. Oh, the joys of air travel.