What Next - After They Testified: The Trans Pharmacist Who Went Viral
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the fight for trans rights, including gender-affirming medical care, heads through state legislation, activists and medical providers are stepping up to testify. While explaining her perspective as a medical professional, a Little Rock pharmacist, who is trans, was asked about her genitalia in the middle of the Arkansas general assembly.
This is the first installment in What Next’s Pride Month series. “After They Testified” is about the Americans who’ve shown up in the last year to speak out against anti-queer legislation, how it felt to do so, and what came next.
Guest: Gwen Herzig, owner and pharmacist at Park West Pharmacy in Little Rock, Arkansas, president and executive director of The Prism Foundation.
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This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you know Gwendolyn Herzeg's name, it's probably for a really awful reason. |
| 0:13.6 | A reason should rather forget. |
| 0:15.8 | But before we get into one of the worst moments of Gwen's life, let me just back up, explain |
| 0:20.9 | who she is. |
| 0:22.8 | Gwen is a trans woman, also a pharmacist, lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. |
| 0:28.4 | Unlike a lot of queer people, she got into her car and drove to her state capital this |
| 0:33.4 | year to offer testimony. |
| 0:40.8 | In Gwen's case, she was testifying against a bill known as SB199. |
| 0:46.3 | This bill extends malpractice rules, allows trans kids who are threat their transition to |
| 0:51.4 | sue their medical providers, decades after receiving treatment. |
| 0:56.5 | Practically, it's a way to narrow the pathway to gender affirming care. |
| 1:06.2 | At the hearing Gwen went to, she was the first member of the public to speak. |
| 1:14.5 | Good morning. |
| 1:15.5 | My name is Dr. Gwendolyn Page Herzeg. |
| 1:16.8 | I own her and farm is just a Park West Pharmacy in Little Rock, Arkansas. |
| 1:19.8 | I've lived my entire life in Arkansas, born in Newport, raised in Northeast Arkansas, |
| 1:23.6 | and have completed my job. |
| 1:24.6 | To get out your iPad, and it's, you just start speed reading. |
| 1:30.4 | That's how it looks to me at least. |
| 1:31.8 | Yeah, speed reading in half nervous. |
| 1:33.6 | So I'm nervous. |
| 1:34.6 | I start, I talk fast, I guess. |
... |
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