Did the TSA thing yesterday.

The pat-down was no problem at all. Standard pat-down just with a lot more detailed verbal explanation before each touch, and attention to the legs than usual.

The poopy part was the "Opt Out" 3-ring circus.

I was directed to the x-ray backscatter, and politely said I couldn't do it. (I did not offer to display my collection of cancer scars, but I was ready to.)

Dude running the metal detector and backscatter in my lane hollered out "WE HAVE AN OPT OUT" and that got repeated up and down the 5 lanes that were running. "SHUT DOWN THE BELT. WE HAVE AN OPT OUT."

They directed me to stand right where I was, shut down the x-ray belt my stuff was on, the TSA folks on the lanes either side of me made all the passengers pick up their stuff from my lane and duck under the lane dividers and get into new lanes, all the while saying "I'm sorry, we have to start you over because there's an Opt Out in your lane." One woman glared at me as she struggled to carry 2 bins of stuff and fold over double to duck under the divider. I told her I was sorry.

I felt like sh*t.

It took a couple minutes before a female TSA agent could come get me. She removed my stuff from the stopped belt (wouldn't let me carry it) and brought me over to the pat-down area. Once I was removed from the lane, they started the belt up and let passengers enter the lane again.

After the pat-down, I asked her what I could do in the future to prevent an entire lane from being shut-down and other passengers behind me having to pick up their stuff and move to new lanes. She told me there really wasn't anything else, and that I was fine.

Some airports I've been in have the special needs lanes/slow lanes at the TSA check point. I think in future I'll just go straight to that lane (if there is one) to avoid the total lane shut-down I cause just by asking for the frisking option.