The CVS drug store chain has decided that its employees must conform to supporting fellow “transgender” employees in their stores by issuing “Guidelines for Supporting a Colleague who is Transitioning.”
At one time, individuals who considered themselves to be a different person than who they actually were (usual candidates were Jesus or Napoleon) often found themselves confined to a mental institution.
Not only is a CVS employee forbidden to contradict the person’s delusion, these employees must participate in that delusion by becoming an “ally” by asking their transitioning colleagues to let them know if they were to say or do anything that makes them uncomfortable. Employees of CVS are ordered to not make any assumptions about a fellow employee’s “gender.” (You see, in this alternate world of reality, a person can be of the male sex, but of the female gender, or identity).
Years ago, actress Vicki Lawrence played an unwed mother in a comedy skit on the popular Carol Burnett variety show, in which someone asked her if her newborn was a boy or a girl. Lawrence — playing her role — protested indignantly, “This is 1970! This child will make that decision when it is 21.”
Well, now it is 2023, and now the child does not have to wait until 21 to decide. Small children can suddenly decide that their biological sex does not match their gender identity. If she had run this skit today, Carol Burnett would probably not have been one of the three original inductees in the Women’s TV Hall of Fame. Perhaps she would be replaced by Bruce Jenner — who now goes by Caitlyn Jenner.
Transgender employees are asked to include their preferred pronoun in their email signatures, and do the same when introducing themselves. They are also told to inform their fellow workers that “even subtle forms of discrimination or harassment in the workplace” will not be tolerated. Employees are also directed to not use the transgender employee’s “dead name,” or the name used before transitioning.
The policy states that employees should use terms such as trans-male and trans-female, non-binary (neither gender), and male or female. Other terms that are considered acceptable are “cisgender”(a person who still thinks he or she is the gender that he or she was at birth), and so on.
Employees are encouraged to use “the most appropriate” restrooms. “Any colleague, customer, or patient — transgender or otherwise — may choose to use the restroom and/or locker room that is appropriate to the gender they identify with,” the guidelines state.
It is hard to believe that CVS is the successor company to the Eckerd Drug Stores. The Eckerd chain, oldest of the major drugstore companies in the United States, was founded by J. Milton Eckerd in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1898. His son, Jack Ecker, took over the company and expanded it. By the time Eckerd sold his chain in 1986, Eckerd Drugs had grown to about 1,500 stores nationwide. Eckerd was a devout Christian and a conservative Republican, but CVS is now a company hostile to biblical Christianity.
After Eckerd sold the stores, they were resold to J.C. Penney, and the chain expanded to 2,600 stores before selling out to CVS — at least the stores from Florida west to Arizona. The stores from Georgia north to New York continued as Eckerd for a few more years, until they became part of the Rite-Aid chain.
Clearly, more than just the name has changed at Eckerd now that it is CVS. We have seen this with other corporations, particularly with family newspapers, such as the when the Gaylord family sold the conservative Oklahoman newspaper to the ultra-liberal USA Today network.
Many mistakenly assume that corporations are mostly concerned with making money, but those who manage these large corporations are usually not the founders of the company — the men and women who actually created and built the company. They are just managers. Many of these managers simply see the company they run as a vehicle to advance a progressive agenda, even if that agenda costs the company — and its shareholders — money.
An example of this is if an employee needs to engage in gender “transitioning,” supervisors will be required to give the employee time off. “You may also wish to have appropriate medical care to support your transition,” the guidelines state, “including treatments such as hormone replacement therapy and/or gender confirmation surgery. During and after the transition has occurred, CVS Health encourages you to continue to partner with your Leader and your Advice & Counsel representative, and to immediately report any issues that you might have with your employment, your work environment, and/or your Leader, co-workers, clients, and customers.”
Exactly what CVS believes it can do to clients and customers who refuse to follow these guidelines is unclear.
But one thing customers of CVS can do is take their prescriptions elsewhere.
