The TSA has been under a lot of scrutiny lately with the recent addition of backscatter machines at over 65 airports in the United States. Many travelers are uncomfortable with the unknown health risks associated with being exposed to the radiation from the machines, as well as the fact that a complete stranger can see the naked outline of your body. If you are randomly selected to use the backscatter machine and opt out, you're subjected to a pat down that many feel is invasive and uncomfortable.

Tons of stories have been popping up that detail the incompetence, lack of training, and, quite frankly, lack of humanity at the hands of the TSA. First there's the bladder cancer survivor from Michigan who tried to warn a TSA employee to be gentle with his urostomy bag during his pat down. His request was ignored, resulting in a leaked bag that covered him in his own urine before his flight. Then there's the breast cancer survivor who was forced to remove her prosthetic breast and show it to a TSA employee even though the TSA's own rules regarding prosthetics dictate that "Security Officers will not ask nor require you to remove your prosthetic device, cast, or support brace" and to "not remove or offer to remove your prosthetic device."

Now two more stories have unfolded that continue to highlight the TSA's lack of consistent protocol. First, a female traveler who was wearing a pantiliner because she was menstruating agreed to go through a backscatter machine. Since the pantiliner "obscured the screener's view of her vulva," she was forced to undergo an invasive pat down that humiliated her and left her crying. Really, are we going to start harassing every woman who's on her period because we think they're terrorists? What about women who wear tampons? Is TSA going to think that the string is a bomb fuse? Such much fail going on here.

Next, a woman flying from Phoenix to LA tried to bring a bottle of breast milk with her and asked that it not go through the radiation x-ray scanner, instead preferring a liquid explosives test. Since the TSA themselves have declared in their rules that breast milk is considered a medical item and is exempt from the 3 oz rule and that all you have to do is "declare you have the items" to a TSA employee and present the breast milk "for additional inspection once reaching the X-ray," you'd think this traveler wouldn't have any issues since she was complying with the rules.

Not the case. When the traveler requested that her breast milk receive alternative screening, she was pulled into the "special screening" box without being able to touch any of her screened belongings, including a copy of the TSA guidelines regarding breast milk that she had printed out and brought with her. Apparently the employees had recognized her from the week before and wanted to make an example out of her. For what I have no idea. Maybe "that's what you get for lactating!"?

After being made to wait forever without explanation and inexplicably given a pat down after she had already cleared the metal detectors without incident, she was finally told that in order to board her flight, she'd either have to send the breast milk through the x-ray or dump the milk altogether. She appeals, citing the TSA's own guidelines regarding medical liquids as well as "[appealing] to the Manager's moral character" because she has an infant who will need the breast milk for dinner once she returns home to him/her. The manager refuses to adhere to federal law and allow alternative screening for the breast milk.

She's lectured for several minutes before inexplicably being told to pour her breast milk into eight 1.5 oz containers, then must submit to another screening process. At this point she's spent 42 minutes in the security checkpoint, all over a bottle of breast milk. The traveler missed her flight due to the TSA's ridiculous and illogical obstinence. When she got home, she requested a copy of the security tapes that captured the entire ordeal, and the TSA finally sent her a copy but had removed 30 minutes of footage.   

Too many people are either ignorant to what the TSA is doing or are complacent because they believe these measures are making it safer to fly. In actuality, these increasingly stringent and illogical rules compose a security theater that give the impression of safety but do little more than inconvenience travelers and strip them of their 4th Amendment rights. TSA employees aren't police, they're underpaid and undertrained employees who often abuse power and can't stay consistent with their own rules.

How much are you willing to put up with before you feel that your rights are being infringed upon? Do you think the TSA is being professional and efficient and are enacting security measures that actually work and are keeping us safe, or are you frustrated with their reactionary security measures that do little more than continually marginalize our civil rights?

What do you think about the TSA's latest security measures?