In the midst of all the consternation about the new TSA “pat-down” policies, officials tried to calm criticism with the repeated assertion that travelers will be searched by “same-sex” agents. Of course, anti-gay activist Peter La Barbera at Americans for Truth About Homosexuality is worried about gay and lesbian TSA agents (the TSA has an anti-discrimination policy) conducting the controversial searches on “normal” passengers. LaBarbera wants “healthy discrimination” in which the TSA would “put conditions on employment for self-acknowledged homosexuals.”
“The reality is, most traveling men would not want Barney Frank to pat them down at the airport security checkpoint,” LaBarbera said “Neither would it be fair to assign Ellen DeGeneres to pat down female travelers.”
Actually, more precisely, LaBarbera used the word “normal” to describe the straight TSA agents not the straight passengers, which raises a further complicating question: who would be appropriate to pat down Barney Frank and Ellen DeGeneres? I wonder if LaBarbera would ask an attending physician in an emergency room if he or she were straight? Wait a minute; he just might. This could get really complicated.
On another note in the culture wars over gender and sexuality, I found a new clever T-shirt today from LifeIsLongCo. It says, “Marriage is one man + one woman? Not in the Bible.”
