Anti-gay group: 'Homosexual' TSA staff 'secretly turned on' by patdowns

The head of an anti-gay group is warning travelers that homosexual agents of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) may be getting secret satisfaction out of airport security pat-downs.

His warning adds a homophobic spin to the controversy surrounding new security procedures enacted by the TSA, which have been described as little short of molestation.

"Is it fair to travelers who may end up getting 'groped' by homosexual TSA agents who are secretly getting turned on through the process?" asks Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), an anti-gay group based in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

For LaBarbera, the thought of getting a pat-down from a possibly homosexual agent is of special concern.

"The reality is, most traveling men would not want Barney Frank to pat them down at the airport security checkpoint," LaBarbera said.

The new airport pat-down procedure is required for those who choose to opt out of full body scans using backscatter X-ray machines.

Although a recent poll found that most people are in favor of the new body scanners, many are still concerned with invasions of privacy and possible health effects.

"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays," Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told AFP.

"No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner."

Although TSA officials claim the detailed images produced by the full body scanners are not stored, nearly 35,000 images from a body scanner in an Orlando, Florida courthouse were recorded and stored due to "mismanagement" of the machine.

Those upset about the new body scanners and intrusive airport pat-down procedure have decided to hold an "opt-out" protest on November 24th to show travelers how "the TSA treats law-abiding citizens" who refuse to be scanned.

Pilots and flight attendants, who are not exempt from the new security procedures, are expected to protest as well.

"This situation has already produced a sexual molestation in alarmingly short order," US Airlines Pilots Association President Mike Cleary said in a statement. "Left unchecked, there's simply no way to predict how far the TSA will overreach in searching and frisking pilots who are, ironically, mere minutes from being in the flight deck."

LaBarbera's group, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, is "dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda" and has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"Yes, his homophobic hate is so off off the rails, it's comical, but LaBarbera's nearly 20-year obsession with 'opposing the radical homosexual agenda and standing for God-ordained sexuality' causes lots of damage and heartache to members of the LGBT community," writes the ChatterBox website.

To investigate the "homosexual agenda," members of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality go to gay events in San Francisco and take photographs of naked men.

In September, LaBarbera posted photographs of nude gay men at a Folsom Street Fair.

"LaBarbera has been falsely accused of being a repressed homosexual more times than he can remember," the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality website notes.