Airport authorities demand teen with short hair expose herself to prove she’s a girl

The distraught father of a gay teen in the U.K. says his daughter was forced to expose herself to Egyptian authorities after they expressed doubts that she was a girl.

Tom Disley told The Mirror that he and his 15-year-old daughter Caitlyn, along with Caitlyn’s girlfriend Liv and her parents and Disley’s sons, were on their way to a ten-day stay at a Red Sea resort when airport officials singled Caitlyn out and “kept checking her passport then looking at her.”

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After letting them pass through customs, the group waited for their luggage and “the same men approached again, claiming they needed to check something.”

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Little did they know, it was Caitlyn’s anatomy.

“At first I think the men themselves wanted to look at her intimately,” Disley says, “but Liv’s mum put her foot down and they found a female nurse. I’ve no idea if she had anything to do with the airport.”

“She asked Caitlyn to lift her sports bra and then the message was conveyed that they needed to ‘look down there.’ Liv’s mum said, ‘not a chance,’ and they compromised by Caitlyn pulling her shorts tight to show she didn’t have any male genitalia. Then they were allowed to go.”

Schoolgirl undergoes strip search because airport security thought she was a boy https://t.co/9KZYp0WhVz pic.twitter.com/IeZm90BSlF

— NationalWorld (@NationalWorld) September 19, 2024

Disley called the sex verification “traumatic” for his daughter, who said it was “traumatizing and embarrassing. I’ve never been put through anything like that before.”

The only difference from her passport photo, Caitlyn said, was her shorter hairstyle.

Dad Disley added, “It’s been a horrible experience for Caitlyn and I think it has hit her more now that she is back home. She was able to put it to the back of her mind while they were away but there was the worry of it happening all again at Hurghada Airport on the way home. Caitlyn is a tomboy but her passport says she is a girl, and the picture is clearly of the holder, shorter hair or not.”

Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in Egypt, along with “indecency,” “scandalous acts,” and “debauchery,” according to the advocacy org Human Dignity Trust.

There have been “consistent reports of discrimination and violence being committed against LGBTQ+ people in Egypt” the group says, including “abuse, harassment, forced anal examinations, and the forced payment of bribes.”

Disley says the family went public because they want to warn other tourists of the risk of travel to the country. They’ve enlisted the help of their local member of Parliament to spread the word.

“Caitlin doesn’t want this happening to anyone else,” Disley says. “It could be a 10 or 11-year-old next. We are not looking to prosecute anyone. It’s just we’re against anyone else, especially children, having to face humiliation like that.”

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