Transgender woman detained at Florida airport for scanning 'anomaly'

Shadi Petosky was heading home from a vacation in Orlando, Fla. Monday when she was stopped at the airport, and then detained by Transportation Security Administration agents because of an "anomaly" in her image on an X-ray security scanner. 

Petosky is transgender, and described through her Twitter account how TSA agents took her aside to a private room where they asked her about her genitals. 

According to her account, she was on her way back to Minneapolis from a vacation to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in celebration of her own birthday and her mother's retirement. 

After waiting alone in the private room, Petosky says that a TSA agent named "Bramlet" entered the room and asked her to return to the scanning machine "as a man or it would be a problem." 

The scanner currently used in U.S. airports doesn't show details on a person's body — it only highlights possible dangers.

These scanners have male or female options, according Mashable, but do not have settings for transgender individuals. The settings can impact which shapes prompt alerts, and have indeed created problems in the past. 

"We still hear from people that they don't fly or they avoid flying whenever they can," Harper Jean Tobin, the policy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Al Jeezera America in 2014.

The advocacy group is involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, demanding that it develops clear rules and regulations around the scanner's use. 

Petosky posted an approximation of what she saw on the scanner Monday. 

After going through an intensive security search, Petosky had missed her American Airlines flight and needed to re-book. When she attempted to approach the proper gate to do so, a TSA agent allegedly asked her to leave the airport.

Petosky wrote that when she began sobbing, they asked her to get herself together.

A spokesman for American Airlines told the New York Times that she was then booked on a new flight at no charge.

"American Airlines immediately rebooked Ms. Petosky on the next available flight – at no charge – to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport," Ross Feinstein said.

Petosky disagreed online with the airline's version of events, saying that airport employees at one point called the police to make her leave. They also booked her on a flight to Miami, where she appeared to be as of Tuesday afternoon, not Minneapolis. 

By 10 p.m. ET Monday, Petosky wrote that she was on a plane towards Miami, and later noted that she was used to better treatment from TSA officials.

She wrote that she travels between Los Angeles and Minneapolis fairly regularly, without much issue. 

A spokesman from TSA, Mike England, said that the organization's agents followed proper protocol. 

"After examining closed circuit TV video and other available information, TSA has determined that the evidence shows our officers followed TSA's strict guidelines," he said to the Advocate.

"Supervisory personnel and a Passenger Support Specialist participated in the screening to ensure guidelines were met."

The same evening Petosky made it to her flight, another Twitter user, Meredith Talusan, began #travellingwhiletrans for transgender people to discuss their fears and challenges when flying. 

By the end of her ordeal, Petosky appeared to have mixed feelings about all of the media attention she'd been receiving.