91 Comments
Commenting has been turned off for this post
Jun 20·edited Jun 20

When you consider that most pharmacy customers are in the 50-plus age demographic, I don't think the "these are my pronouns what are yours?" intro is going to be a smashing success.

Expand full comment
Jun 19Liked by Madeleine Rowley

When people ask me why I'm voting for Trump (aside from the fact that I do like some of his policies) I always point towards things like this and many others. If nothing else, he's my battering ram.

Expand full comment

As a Jewish white woman with multiple recurrences of Lymphoma since 2018, I have at least 20 prescriptions that are filled every other week by my local pharmacy and sometimes by specialty pharmacies as well as the pharmacy at the cancer hospital.

Where is the white privilege for me? I stand in line just like everyone else . Many of us are in wheelchairs with no hair , sallow skin and eyes that are dark and shadowed. We can barely stay awake, or we are nauseous, cold and hurting from neuropathy . Nobody is focusing on people’s ethnic or sexual differences. The pharmacist is a lifeline for every patient. It’s life and death, not pronouns and sexual identity.

If anything needs to be taught or needs more clarity is working with patients who come from dozens of countries and struggle with communication. Usually I see the daughter or son translating for the patient, but sometimes the patient is alone and barely understands instructions in English.

This is the real issue, besides pharmacists making sure the latest medications are available for people like me.

The state is clearly misguided in their efforts to force pharmacists to be programmed on issues that pull them away from the more pressing issues.

Expand full comment
author

Dana, I sympathize with you as I just watched my mother go through radiation for a second time. I wish you a full and speedy recovery. Refuah shlemah!

Expand full comment

Thank you!!!!

Expand full comment

More importantly, hang in there Dana. Though I am a physician, I still cannot imagine your struggle. On top of the recurrent lymphoma is the incredible hassle and exhaustion navigating our medical system. All the best.

Expand full comment

Thank you so much. Yes, I have had many grueling treatments, none of which has given me long lasting remission. I still consider myself lucky. I live close to City of Hope, a world class hospital and I speak English. We can afford our insurance, albeit with expensive premiums.

I have witnessed many families who struggle with language and navigating the hospital with its many corridors and outbuildings.

For this reason I started an endowment at City of Hope to help those who need gas money, rent paid, groceries, child care, anything to support struggling families.

I don’t need indoctrination from the state to tell me what type of people deserve financial assistance.

We all suffer the same way when we are sick with cancer and forced to live in hospital for long term treatments.

If I could not afford my medications and needed financial assistance , would pharmacists pass over me and work harder to find ways to support patients of color or a specific sexual preference?

Expand full comment

It is important to bear in mind that (1) there is very limited time for mandatory annual training, and as there is almost nothing new in pharmacology, CA is simply trying to use this moment to get folks up to speed on key social developments; (2) the Trans community gets very little attention in America today, having been marginalized by the culture and the press (silenced), so the health care community must be trained/sensitized to their needs; (3) the deplorable resistance to Trans needs reflected in comments here shows that more, not less, mandatory training may be necessary; (4) even tho the Trans community is a tiny sliver of the population, it is the neediest, as it involves core identity and gender factors, so medical aid and understanding must be directed to them first; and (5) it is not true that a cabal of education and medical officials actively cultivate Trans/gender-fluid beliefs among youth and encourage them to doubt their gender and believe it can be changed, in the process helping to subvert families, undermine parental authority (such as it is), and make youth feel anxious and uncertain. We should be deeply grateful for State initiatives like this. There will be no questions.

Expand full comment

I can’t quite tell if this is a parodical comment or not.

Expand full comment

The comment imitates life. Sometimes I can't tell myself if I live in a parody of life or in life itself.

Expand full comment
deletedJun 20
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Thank you for your civility. My comment was tongue in cheek. I agree w you.

Expand full comment
deletedJun 20
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

He got me too. His last sentence should have been a giveaway, I feel dumb.

Expand full comment
deletedJun 20
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Ain't that the truth. It's like the Babylon Bee all day every day.

Expand full comment

Males of all races are more likely to die of overdose deaths than their female counterparts and across racial groups. Black, American-Indian/Alaska Native, and white males are more likely to die of overdose than any group. See this piece below.

https://gibm.substack.com/p/the-silent-killer-in-president-bidens

Expand full comment

Just when I thought the Golden state had past point of no return they managed to dig a little deeper. To think I ounce thought stupidity had a limit, now I'm not so sure.

I doubt they'll have enough U Hauls to keep up with the demand.

Expand full comment

Isn't that the definition of "point of no return"? You might have meant "the bottom". In the case of CA, both have been reached at the same time.

Expand full comment

Filling birth control prescriptions for men has to require some sort of advanced degree in cognitive dissonance. Thank you, California, for stepping up here.

Expand full comment

WTF is this “Dr. Tam Pham” beaking off about? If a patient is on testosterone or estrogen, you manage their drug-drug interactions accordingly. Pronouns have nothing to do with it….mostly cuz drug interactions don’t GAF about pronouns. Ffs.

Expand full comment

That's wrongthink right here. You should reconsider your incorrect world view. The baffled baboon and his fedzilla goons don't appreciate your type of commentary. There may be reprisals.

Expand full comment

From grade school through high school, college, grad school and continuing professional training, the goal is no longer education but indoctrination. I have given up on even visiting California. The last thing I want is for a pharmacist to tell me his or her pronouns and ask for mine.

Expand full comment

I just read Niall Ferguson's "We’re All Soviets Now" here. Seems he nailed it pretty good..

Expand full comment
Jun 18Liked by Madeleine Rowley

“Racism creates race: otherness and whiteness.”

And you know what else creates race, otherness, and whiteness?

DEI.

For example, I spent the first 30 years of my life never having to think about whether Jews are white, white passing, or people of color. I just knew that discriminating over ethnicity, national origin, or religion is wrong.

Then suddenly during the last two years, I had to realize that for a significant percentage of people it matters whether Jews are white or not. It matters because, allegedly, white people have been the baddies throughout history, therefore they don't deserve protection. I guess they have never heard of, for example, the Ottoman occupation of Europe that lasted hundreds of years, or the Mongolian invasions of Eastern Europe which was a real genocide.

Expand full comment
Jun 18·edited Jun 18

I would never raise a child in one of these states that have been captured by Leftists. I feel bad for parents with children in these systems.

Expand full comment
Jun 18·edited Jun 18

Beyond the obvious problem of ideological poisoning of yet another profession, the primum non nocere - first do no harm - ethic goes out the window here and even endangers the broader population.

It's a true atrocity for a child to be sacrificed to the progressive agenda and have their life destroyed via 'gender affirming care' (there are exceptions) but at least the physical damage is limited to a single individual. In the case at hand, all patients of these pharmacies are potentially put in harms way as a consequence of the malprogramming of pharmacists.

Of course many supporters of this corrosive, unscientific programming are undoubtedly luxury believers - wealthy SoCal liberals with high end doctors, and thus have no exposure to the dangers.

The casualties of DEI and the progressive agenda are piling up and getting worse. After losing the humanities, psychology and other soft sciences, now hard science and medicine are slipping away.

Expand full comment
Jun 18Liked by Madeleine Rowley

Seems like the only ones benefiting from the creation and implementation of these training courses are the army of DEI administrators hired to enforce it all.

Expand full comment

The California legislature is out of control. We need sane people to run for office, but who wants to work with the people in place? I mean, really, do you want to spend your time arguing with Scott Wiener about gender affirmation? Whether 12 year olds should be able to consent to medical treatment without their parents’ knowledge or consent? You might as well spend your days talking to the crazy people pushing around carts in San Francisco.

Expand full comment

The sane people in CA are making oodles of money in software or biotech, or are hanging out on the beaches smoking weed. The crazies go into politics.

Expand full comment

I think you would have a more intelligent conversation with the street people.

Expand full comment

I think he was talking about street people in that "people pushing around carts" . I'm thinking "people pushing around carts" are more interesting (and smarter) then most in the California legislature , LOL ?

Expand full comment

William F. Buckley observed: "I would rather be governed by the first 1,000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty members from an Ivy League University." The people of California would be better off being governed by a random selection of people than by the idiots they have elected.

Expand full comment

They're idiots themselves. You have the government you allow and deserve.

Expand full comment

Maybe the street people should run for office, too.

Expand full comment

Maxine Waters. Sheila Jackson. Yeah.

Expand full comment

Or maybe they have already been elected ?

Expand full comment

Ha, true.

Expand full comment
Jun 18Liked by Madeleine Rowley

Tolerance has morphed into "praise and admire with enthusiasm... or else"

Expand full comment