New Policy Bans Trans TSA Officers From Doing Pat-Downs – One Officer Plans To See Kristi Noem and DHS In Court

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Danielle Mittereder, a TSA officer at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over a policy that prohibits transgender personnel from performing pat-downs or being a required witness during them in private screening areas.

Trans officers “shall continue to be eligible to perform all other security screening functions consistent with their certifications,” and must attend all required training, according to internal documents obtained by AP; but they will not be allowed to demonstrate how to conduct pat-downs as part of their training or while training others.

The lawsuit names Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as the defendant.

The new policy from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), under DHS, is an act of compliance with Trump’s Executive Order of January 20, 2025, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The EO recognizes “male” and “female” as defined by biological sex “at conception.” While an EO is not law, it provides guidance on how to implement the law.

Until February of this year, trans TSA workers were assigned work details that aligned with their gender identity. This had been the case since Biden signed an Executive Order in 2021, addressing discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, and directing federal agencies to take measures to ensure protections were in place. In February of this year, all that changed.

Mittereder is now also barred from using women’s TSA facility restrooms, which her lawsuit says violates civil rights law. Her lead counsel, Jonathan Puth, has called TSA’s guidelines “terribly demeaning” and tells GO that while she remains employed at TSA, “her path toward advancement has been completely undermined by the policy.”

Throughout her employment with TSA, Mittereder’s supervisors had given her the highest available performance rating for all competencies and praised her professionalism, skills, knowledge, and rapport with fellow officers and the public.

“Solely because she is transgender, TSA now prohibits plaintiff from conducting core functions of her job, impedes her advancement to higher-level positions and specialized certifications, excludes her from TSA-controlled facilities and subjects her identity to unwanted and undue scrutiny each workday,” reads the Complaint.

“For someone so dedicated to her work with hopes for a career with TSA, to be singled out and prevented from doing her job is painful and frustrating,” Puth says. “The policy is completely illegal. We are confident she will prevail in court.”