Ashley Yang is a confused man/woman. He began life as a male, but has chosen to live life as a female. Ashley Yang takes female hormones, dresses like a woman, behaves like a woman, uses women's restrooms, etc. Yang, however, has not yet undergone gender reassignment, so Ashley is technically a male in the eyes of the Transportation Security Administration.
Ashley Yang's gender bending ways caused her problems in her job as a security checkpoint screener with the TSA at LAX. She applied for the job as a woman and was hired as a woman, but she informed the TSA of her gender history prior to a background check. (Yes, surprisingly, it appears the TSA actually does conduct background checks on at least some of the power-tripping, bumbling freaks they hire.)
The TSA offered Yang a chance to work with baggage, but Yang did not seem to be interested in the pirate's life of theft and freebooting that so many TSA baggage inspectors enjoy. Yang was interested in a different kind of booty and is more of a hands-on person. He/she probably joined the TSA with dreams of getting up close and personal with the endless stream of submissive airline passengers TSA victimizes on a daily basis.
Since the TSA considers Yang a male, they made him (an aspiring her) perform his/her job as a man. TSA management originally ordered Yang to dress as a man, wear a male hairstyle, use the men's restroom, etc. This man/woman was also ordered to pat-down only male passengers, and this is when the absurdities of TSA's intrusive pat-downs begin with regard to sexuality and gender issues.
Now, if you are a man, would you rather receive a pat-down from straight man or male who has made some rather serious and obvious commitments to live life like a woman? When that hand is sliding around your testicles and anus, do you want that to be the hand of a straight guy or someone who may have some unconventional and flexible ideas about sexuality and gender roles? Really, it is your genitals, so who do you want touching them? If you are a man, do you suppose you would be more comfortable being touched by a cross-dressing, hormone-altered man or a straight woman? Would you prefer to receive a pat-down from a gender-switching male or a lesbian? Forgive the assumption here, but if given options, being touched by a man who longs to be a woman would probably be very far down on most straight men's lists of pat-down preferences.
On the surface, it seems like the issues here are sexual preference and gender, but these are only minor complications caused by a much more serious problem. The TSA's pat-downs themselves are too sexual. When it matters whether a pat-down is being performed by a male or female, then the pat-down is too intrusive and sexually charged. It should not matter whether the hand in your crotch is a male or a female hand, because that hand should not be in your crotch in the first place.
By the way, if you are a man, and you actually do want a personal pat-down from Ashley Yang, you will not enjoy the pleasure of getting a federally sanctioned groping for free at LAX. You will have to track down Ashley Yang and ask him directly for a freelance pat-down. Ashley Yang was fired from the TSA for using the women's restroom at work, making him perhaps the most harmless person ever to be fired by the TSA. Normally, to get fired by the TSA, an agent has to do something big like steal from passengers, beat up a coworker, commit rape, kidnap someone, etc. Failure to stop bombs, weapons, and terrorists from getting onto airplanes are not always grounds for dismissal at the TSA. Competence and public safety is a lesser concern there. If a person wants to get fired by the TSA he/she had better be prepared to do something either really nasty or just use the wrong restroom.
