Transgender woman's TSA encounter goes viral over scanner mishap

A viral TikTok story with roughly 18.5 million views involves transgender content creator Rosalynne Montoya. In an interview with BuzzFeed she elaborates on the cumbersome experience of getting through TSA scanners at the airport.

The main point of contention as outlined by Rosalynne is that TSA has one scanner that has the two options of male and female. In cases like hers they say the system is “broken” and the situation gets awkward to deal with when trying to explain being trans to security staff.

Rosalynne Montoya told BuzzFeed:

"Many states require trans people to have bottom surgery before allowing us to change our gender marker. I changed my documents in Washington state — which is luckily more trans-friendly than most states. I feel incredibly thankful and fully recognize this is a privilege many trans people do not have."

Apparently it’s a regular occurrence that the TSA scanners beep because of the “anomaly” between her legs. This time was no different, apparently. The first time Montoya went through, the TSA agent asked her if there was anything in her pants. Chalking it up to metal on the shorts themselves, TSA tried rescanning. It went off again, and Montoya explained “I’m trans, just pat me down.”

Instead TSA tried scanning Rosalynne Montoya, and their boobs set off the scanner that time. It was only then they agreed to pat her down. In the BuzzFeed interview she says earlier on their transition it was much worse of a process to travel through an airport.

The viral nature of this episode has caught TSA's attention. "Rose said representatives from TSA Headquarters have reached out to her and want to have a conversation with her on Friday," BuzzFeed concludes.