TSA Has Three Main Ways To Punish Passengers Who Opt-Out of Scanners

They make it as unpleasant as possible

If you don't want to walk through a poorly tested full-body scanner or have a TSA agent belittle your anatomy before your next flight, then you still have the right to opt out and submit to an "enhanced" pat-down.

That's exactly what I did on a recent trip from Orlando to Atlanta. Actually, I do it every time I fly.

But as I waited for a male agent—who would ask me to spread my legs, would touch my torso, rub the inside of my legs and feel the back of my neck and arms—I began to understand what the TSA really means when it says it's focusing its efforts on "intelligence-driven, risk-based screening procedures."

It means that when we're screened at the airport, we're separate, but we're not equal.