I’ve been thinking about what to write on this for a few days now. Actually, ever since my friend Shannon was denied service at Lu’s Pharmacy because she was Trans.
For those who don’t know, Lu’s Pharmacy in Vancouver is North America’s first ”women only” pharmacy and was opened this week by the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective to fill prescriptions for women in the Downtown Eastside in a safer, more inviting environment than was available elsewhere in the area.
My issue, and I think I’m in good company on this, is that they happen to have a strict “women born women” policy with regards to their customers. In other words, no Trans women allowed. Or at least the ones that don’t pass staff scrutiny.
Need a prescription filled? Sorry… no… we don’t serve “you people” here. Please go elsewhere and don’t kick up a fuss, OK? We second class citizens need to stand a little taller by metting out some of our own oppression.
I know that’s not what they’re doing but it sure feels like it. Trans people having been fighting for years for the simple dignity of being treated like everyone else and all too often that seems to be too much to ask for some reason. In my own personal case, I was denied medical service simply because I was Trans and after 6 years at Ontario Human Rights, I lost my case not because it was right that I was discriminated against but because I couldn’t find a doctor who would testify against a peer.
It just irks the hell out of me that organizations who know nothing about Trans issues or realities can specifically set blatantly discriminatory policies against us and tell us it’s their right. Were separate bathrooms and water fountains for Blacks and Whites OK too?
They smiled at Shannon and wished her a good day as they turned her away to go to one of the local pharmacies that are all set up like Fort Knox because they dispese methadone to drug addicts. Is this looking after women’s health? Is this providing a safe and courteous service to the community? Somehow I don’t think so.
Oh… and as a kicker.. this is the same organization who argued in the Kimberly Nixon case some years ago that Trans women were not actually women and didn’t deserve protection under BC’s Human Rights Act.
Un-fucking-believable.
