TSA poised to change airport security for gay couples

[Newsjock]

Source: Washington Blade

The Washington Blade has learned the Transportation Security Administration is poised to allow same-sex couples to undergo pre-flight security screenings together in response to two recent incidents with American Airlines personnel at a Colombian airport.

Hunter Carter, a prominent same-sex marriage advocate in Latin America who said American Airlines personnel at the airport in the Colombian city of Medellín separated him and his husband, César Zapata, as they tried to check into their Miami-bound flight on Jan. 18, received an e-mail from Alec Bramlett, senior litigation attorney for the airline, on Wednesday afternoon.

“TSA has communicated to our Corporate Security folks that they are working on a technical change to its directive, and that pending that change, we can immediately begin screening same-sex spouses together,” wrote Bramlett in the e-mail the Blade obtained from Carter. “We are working on communicating this change in procedures to our stations ASAP.”

... Carter and Zapata are the second same-sex couple in less than two months to allege American Airlines personnel at the Medellín airport separated them as they tried to check into their U.S.-bound flight.


Read more: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/01/23/tsa-poised-change-airport-security-procedures-gay-couples/

[msanthrope]

1. I'm glad to hear this. Everyone should be treated equally and humanely under law and policy.nt

[libodem]

2. Absolutely

This change can come fast enough! Can you imagine?

[frazzled]

3. My spouse and I have never been "screened" together

Yeah, sometimes you can go up to the desk together just to show your boarding pass and ID, but I don't even know what it means to be "screened" together.

On one recent trip we took, my husband was told he didn't need to go through regular security and could go through some kind of expedited line where you don't have to take your shoes off and all (whazzup with that?). He declined, because I was already getting in line for regular security. But that doesn't mean we're "together" in any sense. We each have to go through the detection separately, and I always finish way before he does, because I don't carry a laptop or wear lace-up shoes or wear a belt or any of that.

Am I failing to see the significance of something here?

[Ms. Toad]

4. We've always been screened together

Except when we choose to go to separate lines - just because we have different quirks.

It is more of an issue on international flights - where there are import/export limits, and issues about having stuff in your luggage which is not yours or a legally recognized family member's. My spouse bought me a very expensive opal necklace in Australia - which would have been over the limit for a single person, but not as a shared family allowance. We fretted about it a bit, but Immigration (a different beastie - but often also involved and a pain when crossing borders) asked, "Are you a family?" We answered "yes" and that was the end of it.