How it all started
I was made to strip in front of two TSA officers in the Austin, Texas airport because they “couldn’t clear a groin anomaly”. I thought that it would be okay, after all, they weren’t going to touch me. They weren’t going to physically hurt me, I rationalized, so I would feel okay. But after I left the private area I had an immediate sense that what had just happened was wrong, that I had been violated.
After I returned home, I struggled with feelings of objectification and dehumanization. I couldn’t use public restrooms because it reminded me too much of being naked in front of two strangers. Eventually I was able to find a therapist and begin talking about what happened – although at first with great difficulty.
They messed with the wrong person.
Growing up, my dad had fostered an interest in history. Like him, I was particularly interested in the American Revolution. Family vacations were to Independence Hall and Valley Forge, or Williamsburg and Mount Vernon. I was less interested in the intricacies of battles and troop movements than in the ideas of the time. It seemed to me a period of optimism, when ideals about liberty and equality began to be expressed in the design of governments. I was particularly drawn to the idea of the righteousness of protest or overthrow of a tyrannical government. I dreamed of being a revolutionary, but I was always too timid to do much more than participate in local party organizations.
That changed after my run-in with the TSA. I felt I finally had a focused direction for all my libertarian energy. I will probably never be the type of person to stir up violent revolt; it’s simply not my personality. But I have been taking incremental steps, writing letters and filing official complaints, designing posters, and sharing my experience with others. I had the opportunity to speak about a poster I showed in a student art exhibition, and even as members of the audience approached me to thank me for sharing and to remark how powerful my piece had been, I felt that I should be thanking them for the opportunity to share and for listening. Speaking about my experience, expressing its wrongness and a desire to bring the organization that perpetrated it to an end, was a realization of who I wanted to be when I was young. It was a wonderful feeling that what I was doing mattered, and it was a push to be brave and start spreading my message more.
That brings me to the creation of this website. I’m not sure what the next steps will be, but I am looking forward to them, and I hope that even if you aren’t fully convinced of my cause, reading this has at least caused you to reconsider.
End the TSA 