What does a TSA agent to? How much do they make?

Which sex would a transgender person's TSA pat-down agent be?

• From http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1049.shtm: "Except in extraordinary circumstances, a screener of your gender will conduct your additional screening." If I were to claim to be a pre-op transexual, would I be able to get an agent of my own gender? Or would that be fairly transparent for a heterosexual male?

• Answer:

  When I began my public "transition," my job required me to fly multiple times a month.  At the time I'd had no hormone therapy, my hair was short, I had a poor sense of what "female" clothing worked well for me, I had a completely "male" voice, I had male ID and a male name, and I probably looked like an inexperienced crossdresser. Even so, I credit the TSA for always assigning a female-presenting employee to me.  Just because they followed the rules, though, doesn't mean they were generally polite about it. I got lots of looks, overheard numerous agents saying negative things about me to each other, frequently was treated as some kind of disgusting abomination by male agents, and generally dreaded the whole security charade, especially since I seemed to be selected for additional security disproportionately to others with otherwise seemingly similar risk profiles.