Recently a transgender TSA employee has sued because they are not allowed to perform pat downs and therefore not allowed to do a core component of the job. This is an extremely controversial topic as the TSA's rule has always been that pat downs can only be performed by TSA officers of the same gender as the person they are patting down in order to prevent sexual harassment claims and general discomfort. However, it is still extremely unfair to say that a transgender TSA officer can't perform any pat downs when it's such an important task.
Though the TSA is treating their transgender employees unfairly, its hard to come up with a perfect solution to the problem. The TSA can't really just allow any of their officers to pat down others, as sexual assault and harassment claims would skyrocket and many people would no longer feel comfortable being pat down which is essential for airport safety. It will be interesting to see what the TSA will do in this situation as they will face backlash either way.
