A transgender woman named Shadi Petosky was unexpectedly detained by Transportation Security Administration agents at the Orlando airport on Monday. TSA agents allegedly accused her of lying about her gender.
Transgender comedian Tig Notaro’s Twitter account (often run by other people), tweeted to 39,000 followers to watch Petosky’s live-tweets.
Petosky gave her personal account of the incident. This is her personal account from her first live-tweet to 5:24 pm EST on September 21, 2015.
She expressed her frustration and anger about how the TSA and police officers treated her. At one point, she was asked what sex was she by one of the agents.
It became harder for her to continue her live-tweets due to pressure from the TSA to “screen” her phone.
She tweeted a picture of a TSA survey Kiosk and how she rated her experience with the “courteous professionals.”
After missing her flight, she had to rebook.
She was allegedly told by a TSA agent to leave the airport and was “escorted” to a security area by a police officer.
She was humiliated, missed her flight, allegedly told to leave the airport, and escorted like a criminal to a security area. But on the bright side, she said that she was offered some kind words by a TSA agent. She was told to, “get yourself together,” while she was crying her eyes out.
She was put on standby for upcoming flights.
The experience combined with the delays have caused her unimaginable emotional trauma as well as a lot of money.
However, she, like many transgender people, kept a good sense of humor in the face of discrimination.
At some point, someone she identified as a possible American Airlines manager told her that she should, “in the future ask for private screenings,” to avoid problems.
Finally, she took her last photo before her phone died. It’s of a woman who’d been through an ordeal that no American citizen nor any other human being on the planet should have to endure just to travel safely.
She did receive a tweet from American Airlines telling her that her flight had been rebooked.
You can check out and offer your support and kind words to Shadi by going to her Twitter account.