A self-proclaimed transgender employee of the Transportation Security Administration filed a lawsuit over his inability to perform pat-downs under the Trump administration.
Danielle Mittereder, a man claiming to be a woman, is challenging the Department of Homeland Security over its new policy ensuring that TSA agents can only screen members of their actual sex.
The lawsuit filed earlier this month asserted that the policy violates federal civil rights law.
Mittereder started working for the TSA in June 2024 and is currently stationed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
Because President Donald Trump signed an executive order against recognizing transgenderism in the federal workforce on his first day back in office, Mittereder now finds himself unable to pat down women.
The policy is “terribly demeaning and 100 percent illegal,” Danielle Mittereder’s lawyer Jonathan Puth says. https://t.co/5PIw6xApU2
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) November 14, 2025
“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,” the lawsuit said.
Mittereder has “identified and presented as a woman” throughout his tenure, and he “performed pat-downs of female passengers” between October 2024 and Feb. 7, 2025.
He performed several pat-downs every shift during that period.
But after Feb. 7, the executive order barred him from handling the screenings for women.
“By prohibiting Plaintiff from conducting pat-downs because she is transgender, TSA discriminates against her for failing to fulfill traditional sex stereotypes,” the lawsuit claimed.
Mittereder purportedly suffered “anguish and humiliation” because of the new policy, taking leave for the rest of the Feb. 7 shift, as well as Feb. 8 and Feb. 11.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin was contacted by the Associated Press with questions about the lawsuit, per a report from Fox News.
“Does the AP want female travelers to be subjected to pat-downs by male TSA officers?” McLaughlin wrote back to the Associated Press.
“What a useless and fundamentally dangerous idea, to prioritize mental delusion over the comfort and safety of American travelers,” she added.
Jonathan Puth, an attorney for Mittereder, meanwhile said that the Trump administration policy is “terribly demeaning and 100% illegal.”
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