My former coworker Isaac Schlueter is flying today and brought some copies of the UCSF letter with him. While waiting in line at the TSA checkpoint, he struck up a conversation with the family behind him:
Turns out she’s a breast cancer survivor. And her doctor has told her to avoid x-rays, even at the dentist, unless absolutely medically necessary. And she didn’t realize that “millimeter wave digital backscatter detection” used x-rays, because the TSA doesn’t actually put that on the sign.
She did the rest.
When we got to the scanner, I opted out. Then they opted out. She’d already convinced the family behind them to do the same. Her response to the TSA agent was awesome, I wish I’d thought of it:
“Ma’am, please step over here.”
“No thanks, I’ve already had cancer, just feel me up or whatever.”
After the first 4 “OPT-OUT” calls, they just passed us all through the regular metal detector. No one got groped.
Internets, please do more things like this.