#travelingwhiletrans

[nitrosplicer]

“On the other hand, my heartbeat speeds up slightly as I near the end of the line, because I know that I’m almost certainly about to experience an embarrassing, uncomfortable, and perhaps humiliating search by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer, after my body is flagged as anomalous by the millimeter wave scanner. I know that this is almost certainly about to happen because of the particular sociotechnical configuration of gender normativity (cis-normativity, or the assumption that all people have a gender identity that is consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth) that has been built into the scanner, through the combination of user interface (UI) design, scanning technology, binary-gendered body-shape data constructs, and risk detection algorithms, as well as the socialization, training, and experience of the TSA agents.

..

I glance to the left, where a screen displays an abstracted outline of a human body. As I expected, bright fluorescent yellow pixels on the flat-panel display highlight my groin area (see figure 0.1). You see, when I entered the scanner, the TSA operator on the other side was prompted by the UI to select Male or Female; the button for Male is blue, the button for Female is pink. Since my gender presentation is nonbinary femme, usually the operator selects Female. However, the three-dimensional contours of my body, at millimeter resolution, differ from the statistical norm of female bodies as understood by the data set and risk algorithm designed by the manufacturer of the millimeter wave scanner (and its subcontractors), and as trained by a small army of clickworkers tasked with labeling and classification (as scholars Lilly Irani, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Mary Gray, and Siddharth Suri, among others, remind us). If the agent selects Male, my breasts are large enough, statistically speaking, in comparison to the normative male body-shape construct in the database, to trigger an anomaly warning and a highlight around my chest area. If they select Female, my groin area deviates enough from the statistical female norm to trigger the risk alert. In other words, I can’t win. This sociotechnical system is sure to mark me as “risky,” and that will trigger an escalation to the next level in the TSA security protocol.”

- Introduction: #TravelingWhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination by Sasha Costanza-Chock

[erisis]

The night before leaving San Antonio, I realized I had been completely surrounded by hordes of Straight people for many days and needed to find some of my Queer folks! And while, that didn’t happen, I did find my Gays! Which is close enough! I Googled a list of “Gay Bars”, which showed me the rough boundaries of the Gayborhood in San Antonio. And after getting tasty curry bbq, I walked towards it. This was the first place on my list, and I immediately thought it was well and completely abandoned and closed down. So abandoned in fact, I thought it looked like a fantastic ruin of a gay bar. So I spent about 15 minutes just circling the place taking photos! It wasn’t until I got to the parking lot side (I approached from the rear) - (settle down now!) that I saw the trucks and thought maybe it was actually open for business after all! And after wondering exactly how bad and dangerous an idea it might be to go inside, I just opened the door and did it! And was immediately rewarded by the most delightfully old school, and warmly welcoming, neighborhood gay bar! Just a few folks sitting around a central square bar. And jukebox playing great 80s/90s music! The whole bar joked around easily and I joyfully settled in to the banter! I had a lovely and wide ranging conversation with a local seated near me, which was easily the longest conversation I’d had all week, and very, very nice. If you’re ever in San Antonio and need some good old fashioned Gay Bar atmosphere, in a chill neighborhood bar type place, I cannot more strongly recommend a visit to the Cobalt Club! And say hi to Jordan the bartender for me! #gaybars #sanantonio #texas #lgbt #gay #transwoman #queer #trans #lgbtq #oldschoolgaybar #neighborhoodbar #travelingwhiletrans (at Cobalt Club) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcJB00euoLc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[leeharrington]

TSA couldn’t decide what gender to ask me as, so they offered both agents to choose from. The female agent told me she would be scooping “here” indicating the curved pattern under breasts. Hooray for being treated well by the airport. Austin here I come! #TravelingWhileTrans #DenverAirport #TSA https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVW4U0ORV_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[elliottorrin]

Have had an interesting time on this trip because my prescription still hasn’t come in the mail with my injection needles and syringes. Felt confident I could get one at the Target CVS easily, and yesterday I did. Unfortunately last night I opened the syringe package and found out the needle it came with wasn’t going to come off. Went back this morning and got the right thing so now, going to do my shot in a bathroom at the event I’m at. 🙃💉🌈🦄 #trans #nonbinary #queer #testosterone #travelingwhiletrans #needles #theythem #unicorn #selfmade (at Merrifield, Virginia)

[mshelenahandbag]

Traveling while trans is exhilarating and scary all at the same time. I sloppily tucked hoping to avoid a TSA groin anomaly, and surprisingly didn’t have one. I haven’t peed yet and im hoping no one clocks the nearly six foot trans woman literally just trying to (to quote @yvettenicolebrown from COMMUNITY) discretely eliminate waste. But I brought a couple talismans to remind me I’m gonna be ok and can do hard things. I brought both @janetmock ‘s books #RedefiningRealness & #SurpassingCertainty with me, which have helped me remind me I’m doing exactly what I need to be authentic and happy. And if y’all haven’t read these pick a copy up FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOK SELLERS AND NOT AMAZON! I got mine from @leftbankbooks and I’m eternally grateful. #TransIsBeautiful #GirlsLikeUs #TravelingWhileTrans https://www.instagram.com/p/CGdIddEjSL9/?igshid=twfocj5rs46g

[kamalamackerel]

the anxiety of traveling while trans can sometimes be overcome with a thick scarf, & long, shiny, perfect curls🧣💃🏾🧣#travelingwhiletrans #travelingwhileblack #trans #travel #femme #selfie #femmemagic #qtbipoc #qtpoc #lamackerel #kamalamackerel (at Paris - Gare de Lyon)

[scriptlgbt]

Is it ok to have lgbt characters visit foreign countries and immersing in local culture but have to hide who they are or at least omitting truth. Especially if there are legal issues? Does it matter whether it's a one time trip, or dozens of trips? Or is it ok because they have chosen to go, and not forced to hide in daily life. How about coping mentally if that much hiding isn't daily life?

This should be okay to write about but there are a lot of ways to potentially go wrong. Mainly in the depiction of different cultures as being necessarily not understanding when that isn’t always the case. Even in cultures that may have a status quo of not talking about it or treating it as shameful, there are still people who exist who fight against that. And depending on where they travel to and the safety culturally (legally is a different thing and more involves how much of a police state it is), they’ll probably end up meeting up with others where they travel who have similar identities. 

There are trans people in Russia who are living as themselves, only with more of a target on them. From the linked article, 

“Although it’s unquestionably harder to be transgender here than it is in some other places, not everything about being trans in Russia is negative. One of the main plus points to living here is that hormones are easy to get hold of. I can buy them at the chemist without a prescription, which is great. I’ve been taking them for three years now.”

There are trans people living as themselves everywhere. 

There are lesbians in Burundi, who have developed their own secret ways of signalling to other lesbians they aren’t alone.

When I’ve travelled to the so-called USA, it’s always been to visit my chosen family. The US government is pretty shitty about trans people, but frankly, my own government has been moving in a very similar direction, taking inspiration from Tr*mp. While a general culture might have an attitude of most people believing one thing or another for one reason or another, it’s important to note that as much as there are hateful people everywhere you go, there are people who are filled with love and understanding and solidarity too.

When I travel (which… admittedly is rare because it’s entirely when I have travel covered by whatever organization) I try to connect specifically with like-minded people where I am going. I’ll usually scope out the people online and figure out if there are events or groups or workshops I can go to. I haven’t travelled where my identity is criminalized more than it is where I live, but I imagine I would be looking for travel advice from other LGBT+ people going to these specific places. LGBT+ travel guides exist for a lot of places, as do disability travel guides and a number of others. There are a lot of LGBT+ people from there who have moved elsewhere who talk about visiting home as well and what that is like.

Those might be some routes to search through! There aren’t a lot of hard and fast rules about things because safety and sense of safety vary for a lot of people. Being closeted generally has a kind of discomfort in it for most people, there’s just different levels of it and people use different things to gauge whether they feel comf or not being out in a given circumstance. And some people cannot hide who they are, and some people can. (For example, a cis woman who is not GNC might feel more able to hide their identity than a nonbinary trans woman. But that’s not always the case and these things vary even between people with the same identity labels.)

There’s a lot of possibilities and it really depends on the place. I would specifically try to search out what LGBT+ people from a certain place are saying about their home, and LGBT+ travellers who have been there have said about their experiences.

I would try to specifically google the hashtag #TravelingWhileTrans (alternatively #TravellingWhileTrans) for stuff about that as well. We have posts in that tag on our blog as well which might help you.

- mod nat

[lboogieproductions]

so some of you may be braving the airport with you trans, gender queer, gender non-conforming (and much more) beautiful selves. Yup, airport bathrooms and security lines can be tricky. And here i was just wondering if I’d find Keto friendly lunch options in Atlanta... 😏Stay tuned and stay strong ✊🏾😏 #travelingwhiletrans #transvisibility (at Delta Terminal - San Francisco International Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqclu6IBSJX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qb6g4qg5dzg3

[travelingwhiletrans]

So my trip has actually mostly started, but the official grand opening of this blog won't be till March 20th, the day after my 26th birthday. I still don't quite know where this blog will land. I know personally I want to use it to document my personal goals of making it to space... more on that later... but also I'd like for this to be a platform to show what it's like to travel, mostly solo, as a young woman (and the *special* things that come with being trans on top of that). Also, I'd like to showcase other people's travel as well (funds permitting). As a middle-class raised, white trans woman I have a very specific perspective on the world and a very specific set of privileges and challenges. I want to talk more about that and Direction and want to go with this blog next week but still then enjoy this stupid video from the Tulsa Air and Space Museum ... how exciting.

[hivaidsupdates]

Our latest Transgender Equality Magazine. Updated twice daily!#TransRightsAreHumanRights #LGBTQhttps://t.co/pTrQ08rlPW Thanks to @UCSFCAPS #jussiesmollett #travelingwhiletrans

— HIV & AIDS Updates U=U (@HIVAIDSupdates) March 26, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/HIVAIDSupdates March 26, 2019 at 08:25PM

[manaboutworldmag]

This photo comes courtesy of our friends at @travelgov (U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs), which has been a longtime partner of us here at ManAboutWorld. We help them better serve LGBTQ 🏳️��🌈 travelers and they help us reach more of queer America with our travel and travel safety guides and information thanks to their reach. They just started their IG account but it’s sure to be interesting, fun and informative. Check them out and pleased follow them at @travelgov. Photo taken in Colombia by @diplohorse #gaytravel #lgbttravel #lgbtqtravel #lesbiantravel #transtravel #travelingwhiletrans 🇨🇴 https://ift.tt/2zTfOxi

[alplabetmafiahead]

::beyoncé voice:: god is real 🙏🏽🌊✨ . . . . . . #homeland #motherland #yemaya #pachamama #lapachamamaheals #costa #atardecer #sunset #beach #travel #writersofinstagram #criptravel #travelingwhiletrans #qtpoc #potd #beautiful #picoftheday #photooftheday #instadaily #instamood #whereiwork #vitaminsea #oceantherapy #latinx #diaspora #migrant #returnee #travelwriter #nature #ocean #love #blessed #decolonizetravel (at Ballenita, Guayas, Ecuador)

[elliottorrin]

Crowdsourcing: I am rapidly approaching back to back trips that involve me interacting with the TSA and I'm looking for some input. I need to travel with my testosterone (and needles and syringe) for two of my trips and haven't ever traveled with a medicine other than ibuprofen, let alone one that is a prescription that is seen as a controlled substance and with needles. So, tips for that? Using a diabetic kit (see pic) to store my stuff already but want to get the least TSA hassle. Secondly, I always get the pat down so not really unprepared for that but these trips will be my first trips with my name change, shaved head, and X gender marker. So other thoughts about navigating that especially if you've traveled outside of Oregon with the X marker and how that has gone with TSA? (Don't have my passport yet as back up document yet.) Thanks in advance. Feel free to comment or personal message. 🌈🦄 #transgender #testosterone #travelingwhiletrans #selfmade #queer (at Oregon)

[janelleirl-blog]

This is what a 6 month supply of #hormones looks like. I mean, this is what a Customs and Border Patrol-approved 3 month supply of hormones looks like. 😂 #GirlsLikeUs #TravelingWhileTrans

[jakthebomb]

I was harassed by TSA on Tuesday Night for being Transgender.  They called me Sir and He after learning that I was Transgender when their Body (Intruding) Scanner flagged my Groin as an “Alarm”.  The TSA employees started getting hostile towards me and only deescalated once the main supervisor intervened.

This is the first time I have dealt with Non-Family and public discrimination.  If their Body Scanner didn’t flag my groin, they would never have found out that I was Transgender.  The problem is, everytime I go through the scanner, it flaggs me.

Please share this video, I want people to become more aware what Transgender People are forced to go through due to TSA’s overbearing and unnecessary body scans.

[lboogieproductions]

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A post shared by Lea Robinson (@le_robinson_)

alright, epic travel day part 2 y’all. I’m in Atlanta holding it down, next stop Kentucky... so far so good 👍🏾. #travelingwhiletrans #transvisibility #butchesdoingbutchythings (at Delta Terminal - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqdSNA4hlLw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pfj14fdi8zso