Kansas City reaches settlement on Costco transgender health care discrimination case
Kansas City’s department of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity (CREO) reached a settlement Friday in its discrimination investigation into a Kansas City Costco’s testosterone-prescribing practices for transgender and nonbinary patients.
The office opened the investigation last year following a Star report that at least five transgender and nonbinary patients were denied their prescribed testosterone at the pharmacy. The pharmacy denied wrongdoing.
“This is our biggest fish that we’ve ever seen,” said Justice Horn, chair of the city’s LGBTQ Commission, referring to Costco’s size and resources. “Allegations of discrimination, we take that very seriously.”
The city did not share details about the settlement, including the number of patients involved. We still don’t know if Costco received any penalties or made any changes as a result of the settlement.
“The matter was settled to the satisfaction of all parties,” city spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt wrote in an email to The Star Friday. She added that she could not release any further details about the office’s decision.
Kansas City’s LGBTQ Commission released a statement Friday about the decision echoing the city’s summary without further detail.
“We want to thank the City of Kansas City and the City of Kansas City’s Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity (CREO) Department for taking the issue of LGBTQ+ discrimination seriously and for conducting a thorough investigation,” the commission wrote.
The Star reached out to five patients who shared their experiences with the paper. We haven’t heard back from any patients who filed official complaints and were parties in the investigation.
“I am glad there was an agreement reached and that action was assumedly taken,” said Justin Short, a former LGBTQ commissioner for the 4th District. “It shows that the community has options when they feel they are not being treated fairly.”
The Star has filed an open records request for more documentation and details about the decision. We will continue to report on this topic as more information becomes available.
Do you have more questions about issues affecting the LGBTQ community in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 3:54 PM.
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