Texans Want Airport Staff To Stop Touching Their Genitals, Now
LIKE the rest of us, Texans don’t like having their genitals felt up by uniformed security staff at airports. But unlike the rest of us, they’ve finally put their feet down and refused – as a state – to accept it. The Texas House of Representative passed a bill earlier this month which would class most airport security staff with sexual harrassment. Specifically:
“The proposal would classify any airport inspection that “touches the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person including through the clothing, or touches the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person” as an offense of sexual harassment under official oppression“
The federal government has retorted that they will ban flights from Texas if they can’t guarantee that everyone on the plane has undergone a safety check.
In Britain we have invented high-tech naked scanners to get round this problem. That’s what the Americans need. Why don’t we lend them some from Heathrow? The X-ray based machines are sophisticated enough to get all the juicy details without anyone having to touch anybody else. The BBC explained:
“the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers’ genitals.”
All the information airport security staff could want. An official in Manchester where they were also being trialled took pains to state that “The images are not erotic or pornographic and they cannot be stored or captured in any way”.
In Texas the stand-off continues.
Spotter: Jezebel
Posted: 28th, May 2011 | In: Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink