Mandatory ideological training has now come to the drugstore. In California, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, in order to keep their license, must study the latest in gender identity, colonialism, and white privilege. Such “cultural competency” courses are required by a state law that went into effect this year.
When the bill was introduced, Democratic Assemblyman Christopher Ward, the lead sponsor, said that the continuing education class would help “ensure pharmacists are looking out for the well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals.”
Like many licensed professionals, pharmacists are required to take continuing education courses, usually with titles like “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD)” and “Trimming Trends: Unveiling the Latest in Weight Management Guidelines.” Though this new training requires only an hour of the pharmacist’s time every two years, it’s another demonstration of compelling people to passively accept dubious assertions and assumptions, or risk losing their livelihoods.
One such course, titled Caring for All: The Pharmacy Professional’s Role in LGBTQ+ Health and Equity comes from the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA). The outline, obtained by The Free Press, features many charts that are hard to square with the duties of a pharmacist. There is a chart illustrating many “systems of oppression.” These include “sexism,” “cis-sexism,” “heterosexism,” and “adultism.”
Another chart describes “effects of colonialism and colonization on pre-colonial ways of being.” It states: “Racism creates race: otherness and whiteness.” Some of the pre-colonial ways of being pharmacists are taught include “two-spirit,” the term used by Native Americans to describe someone who has “both a masculine and feminine spirit.”
The training also suggests that pharmacists introduce a question about a customer’s gender at their first interaction. The course gives this prompt: “Hello, my name is Jay. I use they/them and he/him pronouns. How would you like me to address you?”
Click here to see a slide show of the training.
What does any of this have to do with being a pharmacist? Not much, said several pharmacists The Free Press spoke to.
Lisa Marino, 54, a hospital pharmacist in Los Angeles County, says the new cultural competency course provides nothing that relates to her job. “Our role is to aid in providing safe and appropriate use of medication for all people, regardless of culture, and with a respect for everyone’s privacy and dignity,” said Marino. “This feels like indoctrination.”
Joe, 50, who asked The Free Press not to use his last name, worked as a pharmacist for 25 years and owns an independent pharmacy in Los Angeles County. He says that respecting all customers, no matter their race or sexual orientation, is a given.
“To be a competent pharmacist, you need to know about medications, professional ethics, and the law,” said Joe. “That’s it.”
Dr. Carrie Mendoza is an emergency medicine physician and the recently appointed director of Genspect USA, an organization that seeks evidence-based treatments for people with gender distress. She says people are taught to be so hyper-sensitive to avoid offending people, especially to those in a designated “marginalized” group, that pharmacists may be afraid to bring up legitimate concerns. “A pharmacist might not raise medication safety concerns such as adverse effects [or] inappropriate dosing. . . out of fear they will be called discriminatory,” said Mendoza. “Political trainings like this undermine safety for all patients and should be immediately removed from our healthcare system.”
But one of the three CPhA cultural competency course authors, Dr. Tam Phan, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California—and the clinical pharmacy program coordinator at the Los Angeles LGBT Center—told The Free Press in an email that a pharmacist’s role has expanded beyond quick interactions at the prescription counter.
“Pharmacist prescriptive authority in California has expanded to immunizations, hormonal contraceptives, travel medicine, nicotine replacement products, and HIV. . . treatments,” he wrote. “For pharmacists who are not interacting with patients directly, LGBTQ+ cultural sensitivity is still important since pharmacists should be knowledgeable of potential drug interactions between hormones being used in gender affirmation with the patient’s other medications.”
Maddie Rowley is an investigative reporter. Follow her on X @Maddie_Rowley. And read her piece, “Nonprofits Are Making Billions off the Border Crisis.”
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Excellent that the FP are highlighting this.
Several thoughts -- 1. Biological sex is a variable in medicine. The NIH has been requiring biological sex to be taken into account when doing research. What sex you are matters in things like diabetes 2, cancer drugs, heart attacks, asthma, trauma etc. Because the previous model was male (think thalidomide for why this was done), biological females suffer more side effects. This research only really started after 2014, and all research has had to have sex as a variable since 2018. It is not gender difference but sex differences -- thus pronouns should not matter when prescribing the correct dosages. Medical safety should outweigh concerns.
2. A good pharmacist should be aware of the interaction between various drugs, including those prescribed for medical gender affirmation. It is part of the job description. And one of the problems with the medicalized gender affirmation are the sheer number of side affects and complications. For example, a recent study showed that 94% of trans identified females taking cross sex hormones had pelvic floor dysfunction (aka they involuntarily wet themselves and also had higher rates of uti's) see for example https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00192-024-05779-3
3. It should go without saying that pharmacists should treat their customers with dignity and respect, but not at the expense of medical safety. There are important medical safety reasons why pharmacists should know the biological sex of their customers. Medical safety must come before 'emotional' safety because unsafe practices can and do lead to medical scandals. And the victims of such scandals are real people.
We often see people - especially in the MSM - ask “Why are people voting for Trump?” By which they mean - why are apparently sane, intelligent and even non-white people supporting Trump? Here is a good example - and there are many. It started out slowly many years ago - and has taken off like wildfire in recent years. Many many people who were willing to ignore it previously are now waking up to the indoctrination agenda. Votes matter - even in local and state elections where crazy progressives can appoint people to regulatory and licensing boards who then begin implementing the agenda.