Transgender TSA officer sues Kristi Noem after Trump’s executive order bars her from patting down travelers
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A transgender Transportation Security Administration officer, who has identified and presented as a woman since her first day on the job, is no longer allowed to pat down air travelers thanks to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that, with a stroke of the pen, wrongfully reclassified her as a man.
In a federal lawsuit filed November 7, Danielle Mittereder, who joined the TSA last year and works screening passengers at Dulles International Airport, says Executive Order 14168 – Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government – has not only made it impossible for her to perform her duties, it has turned her coworkers against her; halted any possibility for her to rise through the ranks; and involuntarily “outed” her to all.
Before Trump’s January 20 order went into effect, Mittereder, 34, performed several dozen partial and full-body passenger pat-downs during each of her shifts, her complaint states. It says she did them in “an effective and competent manner,” and that her supervisors have “praised her professionalism, skills, knowledge, and rapport with fellow officers and the public.”
But, for the past 10 months, Mittereder’s complaint says she has been bound by the executive order, and a subsequent TSA directive in February “prohibiting all transgender [officers] from conducting pat-downs.”
Mittereder “just wants to do her job,” according to attorney Jonathan Puth, who, along with co-counsel Carla Brown, brought the suit on her behalf.
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On President Donald Trump’s first day back in office, he issued an executive order defining a person’s sex as an “immutable biological classification as either male or female,” which “does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’ The EO was followed up with a TSA directive upholding it. (Getty Images)
“She’s good at her job, she wants to go to work and do her job every day,” Puth told The Independent. “And she’s not allowed to do it, for the sole reason that she is transgender.”
The situation, Puth said, “really is very degrading, and it also is completely illegal.”
Mittereder’s lawsuit names Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as the lone defendant. TSA is a component of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem has expressed her full support for Trump’s EO and said DHS would “fully comply.” As the governor of South Dakota, Noem signed into law a bill that banned gender-affirming care for minors, a move that was slammed by advocacy groups as discriminatory and harmful to trans kids.
In an email on Tuesday, a TSA spokesperson said that, in compliance with EO 14168, the agency “has rescinded a policy from 2021 regarding transitioning and transgender officers. Male Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on male passengers and female Transportation Security Officers will conduct pat-down procedures on female passengers, based on operational needs.”
In summer 2023, Mittereder applied for a position as a TSA Transportation Security Officer, or “TSO,” according to her complaint.
It says she submitted all her medical records as required, including her diagnosis of gender dysphoria, during the application process and was hired on June 30, 2024. Mittereder began work the next day, and “proceeded through training with the designation as a female TSO,” the complaint states.
When she reported for duty, the complaint says Mittereder was summoned by two TSA administrative officials, who asked why she selected “Yes” for a question asking if she was “born a male after 1959,” meant to check military draft eligibility, but selected “Female” for the question, “Are you male or female?”
“At that time, [Mittereder] disclosed… that she is transgender,” according to the complaint.
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A battle over transgender rights is playing out at Washington Dulles International Airport, between TSA officer Danielle Mittereder and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (AFP via Getty Images)
Passenger screening is a core duty of TSA officers, and includes performing pat-downs any time someone is “unable to use the screening equipment due to a medical condition or voluntarily opts out of using the screening equipment,” the complaint continues.
In those instances, it says an officer “of the same gender must conduct a full-body pat-down of the passenger in order to clear them to go through the checkpoint.” Mittereder, according to the complaint, “was trained to conduct pat-downs of female passengers, consistent with her gender identity.”
Mittereder completed her training in October 2024 and was assigned to screen passengers at Dulles in Washington D.C. From that point on, she patted down countless numbers of female passengers, without a single objection, the complaint states.
However, on President Trump’s first day back in office, he issued an executive order defining a person’s sex as an “immutable biological classification as either male or female,” which “does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’”
This, according to Mittereder’s complaint, “denies the existence” of transgender individuals.
On February 7, Mittereder was called into a meeting with the same pair of TSA administrative officials, who read her a directive issued by the acting assistant administrator of TSA’s Domestic Aviation Operations. From that day forward, Mittereder would be precluded from patting down travelers, male or female, “in accordance with EO 14168,” the legal complaint stated, which says Mittereder was “provided no reasons why TSA was prohibiting Plaintiff from conducting pat-downs other than the fact that she is transgender.”
“The February 7 Directive requires [Mittereder] to ask for assistance each time her job duties would otherwise require her to perform pat-downs, thereby exposing her gender identity to co-workers, supervisors, and airline passengers,” the complaint states.
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Airport pat-downs have emerged as a flashpoint in the wake of a federal lawsuit by a transgender TSA officer who says she has been barred from doing her job (Getty Images)
Mittereder was also barred, for the first time, from using the same bathroom and locker room as other female TSA officers, according to her complaint.
Things changed almost immediately for Mittereder, the complaint goes on. When a male officer asked Mittereder to pat down a wheelchair-bound female passenger, she was forced to explain why she was not allowed to do so anymore, “thereby subjecting her gender identity to unwanted attention,” the complaint says.
She endured similar circumstances with other coworkers and found them to be “humiliating,” according to the complaint.
Mittereder was so upset by this turn of events, she took three days off work to collect herself. When she got back to work, she discovered that the February 7 directive had been codified into the TSA Standard Operating Procedures handbook, and the previous directive rescinded.
Without the ability to do pat-downs, TSA switched Mittereder’s job status to “limited duty,” which further prevents her from trading shifts or picking up overtime, according to the complaint. Promotions also became unattainable, since Mittereder could not – and still cannot – perform the full scope of requirements, the complaint maintains.
In May, one of Mittereder’s colleagues told her that she “was no longer comfortable working with her because she is transgender,” the complaint says.
“The co-worker told [Mittereder] that she believes private screening should only be done by an officer of the same biological sex because of ‘the law,” according to the complaint. “[Mittereder] was so upset by the… interaction that she had to leave work early that day, taking 1.5 hours of her accrued sick leave in order to do so.”
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Transgender TSA Officer Danielle Mittereder says in a new lawsuit that the prohibition on her conducting pat-downs has made life significantly more difficult for her coworkers (Getty Images)
On June 30, Mittereder completed her probationary period, according to the complaint. Yet, the success was bittersweet at best, it says.
“As a result of Defendant’s discrimination, [Mittereder] suffered and continues to suffer anxiety, depression, fear, feelings of uncertainty, crying spells, grief, and low mood,” the complaint states. “[She] experienced and continues to experience anger, frustration, embarrassment, and humiliation as a result of Defendant’s decision to prohibit her from doing much of her job, single her out, and stigmatize her due to her gender identity.”
Gregory Miraglia, a retired police officer who is now an LGBTQ+ activist, said the anti-trans sentiment within the federal government is driven by an “element of fear.”
“It’s unfounded in science, and is really fueled by a lack of understanding, a lack of awareness, and a lack of acceptance of what science has told us about gender,” Miraglia told The Independent. “Tragically, I don’t think it’s a unique situation [at TSA].”
For her part, Mittereder alleges TSA violated her civil rights under federal law and is seeking a court order preventing the agency from enforcing the February directive. She is demanding a jury trial, along with compensatory damages to be determined in court.
