Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security will interview Transportation Security Administration staffers in Orlando and Tampa after complaints and allegations of harassment against gay, lesbian and black TSA screeners, reports The Washington Post.
The department's Office of Inspector General started looking into the allegations last October and they gained national attention when CNN reported in January about managers at the Orlando field office of the Federal Air Marshals Service who used a crew assignment board resembling the "Jeopardy!" game show to ridicule and keep score on women, gays and minorities. Lawmakers have heard little about the investigation since it launched, according to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). [After Issa contacted DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner] inspectors e-mailed TSA and Air Marshals employees in the Orlando and Tampa region announcing plans to visit next Monday through Friday.
Investigators will also reviews complaints of harassment of black, gay and female staffers in Cincinnati. If proven, this could be the first case alleging systemic harassment of TSA employees.
Ironically, the congressman spearheading the investigation, California's Darrell Issa, is ultra conservative and no friend of the gays. Go figure.
There also needs to be an investigation into the way TSA screeners treat gay and minority passengers. I was scrutinized and subject to derisive comments a couple years ago by screeners at DFW, who found several of the (gay-lit) books I've written, in my carry-on luggage. They actually cited non-existent "obscenity laws" and told me I could be arrested for transporting these books into Texas. Took me an hour to have their boss straighten 'em out...but it was Texas, after all.
After that episode, I find it highly plausible that TSA would treat their gay and minority employees like garbage.
Posted by: Nathan James | 08 July 2010 at 13:26