A year after KC investigation, another trans customer turned away from Costco pharmacy
BY NATALIE WALLINGTON
UPDATED OCTOBER 12, 2023 6:55 AM
The Coscto pharmacy on Linwood Blvd. in Kansas City, seen here in a screen capture, is again under scrutiny for denying service to transgender patients despite a city investigation earlier this year. Google Maps
Editor’s Note: “
Reality Check” is a Kansas City Star series focused on holding those in power to their word and pulling back the curtain on decisions happening behind closed doors. This newsroom-wide project will bring fast facts as stories unfold — making sure our local officials and institutions are telling the truth, serving our communities well and following through on their promises. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email tips@kcstar.com.
A transgender Kansas City resident said he was denied supplies for his gender-affirming healthcare Monday at the Costco pharmacy on Linwood Boulevard, a year after the city investigated the location for discrimination.
The resident said a routine stop at the pharmacy for over-the-counter syringes ended in frustration when he revealed he planned to use them for his testosterone injections. He says the pharmacist refused to sell him the syringes without a prescription, even though they are typically sold without one.
The city’s Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department
launched an investigation in October 2022 after
a Star report about five transgender and nonbinary people who said they were denied their prescribed testosterone at the pharmacy. Costco
denied the allegations.
Discrimination due to
gender identity, which includes gender expression, has been illegal in Kansas City since its
anti-discrimination ordinance was adopted in 1993.
Earlier this year, the city said it had concluded its investigation and settled it “to the satisfaction of all parties.”
But city officials have said they will not share any information with the public about the outcome of the case.
And one transgender patient who filed a complaint with the city said that after sharing their story, they never heard back from the civil rights office about a resolution.
COSTCO CUSTOMER REPORTS DISCRIMINATION
Dave, whose name has been changed in this story to protect his identity as a transgender man, was grocery shopping at the Linwood Boulevard Costco on Monday when he decided to pick up some syringes.
Dave has used insulin syringes for years to take his prescribed testosterone — their thin needles make his regular injections less painful.
These small syringes don’t require a prescription, making them easy to obtain — and Costco offers a bulk pack of 100 at a nice discount compared to other pharmacies.
At first, the transaction was painless: Dave asked for a pack of syringes and an employee asked him his preferred size and gauge. But when he mentioned that he uses them to inject testosterone, the tone of the conversation shifted abruptly.
“They got weird about it,” Dave said. “The pharmacist, I guess, overheard and she came out and she’s like, this won’t work for testosterone.”
Dave explained that he has used these syringes for his testosterone injections for years — and has even bought the same syringes at that Costco pharmacy before for the same purpose.
Insulin syringes are
regularly used to
inject low doses of testosterone. But despite being an over-the-counter product, the pharmacist insisted that Dave needed a prescription before she would sell them to him.
“She’s like, well, we won’t sell it to you unless you have your doctor call it in,” Dave recalled. He stepped aside to call his doctor’s office, but they were closed for Monday’s holiday. “I didn’t feel like arguing (with the pharmacist). So I just left.”
An assistant general manager at the Linwood Costco said Wednesday that he was not aware of the incident and couldn’t comment on it. A pharmacy employee said that she and her coworkers are not authorized to speak to the media.
A request for comment from Costco’s corporate office was not immediately answered.
Dave called the
Missouri Pharmacy Board Tuesday and was told that syringes only require a prescription if they bear the label “for Rx only,” which his syringes didn’t.
Beyond that, he said he was told that the state gives pharmacists discretion over what they choose to dispense, as long as they don’t violate federal anti-discrimination laws.
“Reflecting, I wish I had lied and just said I was diabetic,” Dave said. “Maybe (then) they would have let me buy them.”
CITY CIVIL RIGHTS OFFICE INVESTIGATES
Late last year, five transgender and nonbinary patients reported being denied their prescribed testosterone and Costco’s pharmacy.
This drew the attention of the city’s LGBTQ Commission, an advisory group to city government which promised to “put the full force of the community behind positive change for those those most impacted.”
The city’s civil rights office, which is tasked with investigating and resolving discrimination complaints, then launched an investigation, asking impacted patients to file formal statements about their experiences.
Four months later, in February of this year, the city announced that the investigation had concluded.
“The matter was settled to the satisfaction of all parties,” city spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt wrote in an email on Feb. 10. She added that she could not share any further details about the decision.
But one transgender Costco patron who filed a complaint with the city last year said they weren’t offered any resolution — or even contacted again after sharing their experience with the civil rights office.
“Someone took my side of the story/complaint, and that’s all I heard,” the patient said Tuesday. “I never heard anything back at all.”
Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz said the city was not aware that patients were not contacted for resolution, or that the problem at Costco appears to be ongoing.
“I don’t believe we have reason to believe there are additional cases to review,” she said Tuesday. “We try to have eyes and ears everywhere, but can only address what we are aware of.”
Justice Horn, the chair of the city’s LGBTQ Commission, said he intends to discuss the issue with City Council and is considering the group’s next steps to respond to the new revelations.
“I think the next thing to do is just call for this pharmacist to resign,” he said. “Obviously, systems (of) bureaucracy aren’t helping and folks are being harmed again... I think we need to change strategies if we’re not getting the outcome we want.”
Horn added that a member of the civil rights office had assured him last year that the investigation was being taken seriously. But his commission wasn’t given any information about its outcome or consequences for the pharmacy.
“It’s important that we are ensuring that our non-discrimination ordinance, that turns 30 this year, is not only being addressed but (also) enforced,” he said. “We unequivocally stand with those harmed and impacted.”
OFFICIALS DECLINE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS
In the eight months since Kansas City announced the investigation of discrimination at Costco was over, officials have declined to answer questions about the case or the settlement.
In June, the city denied a public records request for any documents related to the investigation.
“Any such records related to your request are confidential and therefore closed,” the city wrote.
A memo from its law department cited
Chapter 213 of Missouri’s state statutes, which gives civil rights department directors the option — but does not require it — to keep settlement agreements confidential.
City spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt declined to comment on the case when asked about the new developments Tuesday.
“We cannot discuss outcomes of a case we are unable to discuss,” she wrote in an email, referencing
Chapter 38 of the city code and
Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Chapter 38 of Kansas City code contains all of the city’s civil rights ordinances, and includes a
confidentiality clause, which states:
“No documents…nor anything which has been said or done during the course of a conciliation endeavor… shall be made public… without the written consent of the parties concerned, except as such statements or documents are public records as defined by state law.”
Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 discusses discrimination in employment, which is not relevant to the Costco case.
Have you been denied your medication at a local pharmacy? Do you have more questions about fighting discrimination in Kansas City? Let the Service Journalism team know at kcq@kcstar.com.
the pharmacist is automatically the bad guy?
