it's pertinent to mention that i wore hijab (covered my hair and most of my body) up until about six months ago (on my id i'm covering so sometimes that still gets raised eyebrows). i'm also disabled and use a cane, but i don't "look disabled" (whatever that means, i guess because i'm 24), and so i usually encounter a lot of prejudice/disbelief because of that. also, one of my partners is an airport security consultant (he works separately from tsa - he's employed by the airport - but he helps run security and communications at an airport and also devises security tests for tsa).
since november 2010 i've flown out of tallahassee, jacksonville, philadelphia, charlottesville, kansas city, detroit, columbus, and miami, most of them multiple times. i always travel alone.
most security checkpoints don't have a plastic cane that i can use to go through the metal detector, and when they do have it, i can't use it to go through the full body scanner. normally things are hectic and they're not prepared to handle passengers with disabilities. i get separated from my carry-on luggage frequently. when i was covering i used to get my head and body patted down, no matter how small my scarf was or how obvious it was there was NO way i could be hiding a bomb under there
because of my fear of being separated from my luggage and having things stolen (my partner has told me a lot of horror stories), i've never requested a private screening instead of the full-body scanner. i'd prefer it but i don't have the energy to deal with it.
i never bring anything unnecessary through the checkpoint. just my laptop, kindle, a notebook, my wallet, my phone. i wear shoes that are easy to get on and off and i never wear jewelry through the checkpoint. i'll go through extra pains to check everything else just so i don't have to deal with managing it through the checkpoint.
by far the worst experience i've had was in the jacksonville airport - i was put through the metal detector and the full-body scanner and patted down twice, then i was patted down again by every tsa agent that passed me on the way to the gate. having to put down my laptop case, figure out what to do with my cane while standing in the ridiculous pat-down position, and being humiliated in front of other passengers when it was obvious i was the only one being singled out for extra screening just made the whole experience pretty awful.
the good experiences mostly outweigh the bad. the good news is a lot of agents are too tired/overwhelmed to bother with a ton of extra screening, and every now and then i'll run into some who are really compassionate about the fact that i'm disabled and that makes screening more difficult, and who try very hard not to separate me from my belongings. even most of the ones who have made things difficult for me were at least not rude about it. it's made flying a rough experience which is kind of annoying because my amount of flying has been increasing a LOT, not decreasing...but i do love to fly. i just dread the security checkpoint a lot and i'm paranoid about making it to the gate in time to pre-board. i usually get to the airport 1.5-2 hours early just in case (1 hour is plenty of time for most people).
tsa is there to do their job. i get that. i have a lot of respect for them and everyone else working in airport security. but sometimes i question the efficacy of what they have to do (and i get that it's not their choice) - but, like, patting me down multiple times when it's obvious i'm not a threat rather than using some of that time/energy to pat down other passengers who might be? that doesn't seem efficient to me. but whatever. i don't have a grudge against tsa by any means. but i don't trust them with my belongings and i just wish their policies didn't make it so inconvenient for disabled passengers.