Story highlights TSA contacts Kristin Beck, says it is committed to appropriate training

Beck says TSA supervisor called her "him," told male agent to pat her down

(CNN) A self-described "professional traveler," Kristin Beck knows the airport security drill.

On Tuesday afternoon, the retired transgender Navy SEAL was bound for Kansas City to give a speech to federal employees about gender sensitivity. It's what she does, ever since she stopped going by her birth name, Christopher Beck, and wrote a book about her life as a member of SEAL Team 6. She was featured in the CNN series, " Lady Valor ."

She arrived at Reagan National Airport with enough time to spare, but not too much. Beck told CNN she entered the security checkpoint, put her bags on the conveyor belt and stepped into the body scanner, as she's done countless times before.

When flagged for secondary screening, she took it in stride. She said she waited for one of two Transportation Security Administration agents -- a man and a woman -- to step forward and pat her down. Instead, they turned their backs to her and started whispering.

But to Beck, it was clear what was happening. Despite her makeup, long hair and low-cut blouse, the agents thought she was a man. It wouldn't be the first time since she began publicly living as a woman.

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