Greg Richard (he/him) opened Boyd’s Pharmasave, a self-declared queer-friendly pharmacy, two years ago on March 1, 2021.
“Going into this opportunity, I wanted to make sure that I was doing something that set us apart from a business standpoint,” Richard says, “but also, I was able to finally have control over how I wanted to practice pharmacy.”
Richard opens up about the business’ struggles over the past two years, particularly the aspect of opening during COVID-19.
“I was the type of person who would want to go in and show my face and say, look, this is who I am. This is where I'm gonna be. I want to build a relationship with you. But I couldn't do that.”
Despite the challenge of COVID-19, Boyd’s Pharmacy is growing fast enough to expand its hours, hire a part-time pharmacist and give Richard some time off!
Boyd’s Pharmasave is on Agricola Street in Halifax, which is where Richard has always wanted the business to be.
“The neighborhood itself is a super diverse, vibrant community with folks of all socio-economic statuses, different gender identities, sexual orientations and different ages,” Richard says. “For me, that's what's truly representative of a community.”
Boyd’s Pharmasave is divided into two parts, with convenience store items in the front of the store and pharmacy products and services through the back. A list of their local partners, resources and a link to refill prescriptions are located on their website.
While working in healthcare as a pharmacist, Richard saw a big gap in specifically gender-affirming care. While Boyd’s offers all services that are available at other pharmacies, they also have specialties in offering hormone injections, teaching for administering hormone injections, and comprehensive gender-affirming care consultation.
“Queer-friendly pharmacies are needed,” Richard says, “because any individual who would identify as a minority group, most likely experiences some amount of health inequities when accessing health care services, and for me, my direct impact would be at a pharmacy.”
At Boyd’s Pharmasave, the team strives to be more vocal about pronouns and inclusivity.
As a healthcare provider, Richard wants queer folks to know that he recognizes health inequities and health disparities that people may encounter and is working to educate other pharmacists.
If you're currently accessing healthcare services that aren't conducive to your own personal journey,” Richard says, “seek out other healthcare practitioners, there are a lot of people who have a true passion for helping queer individuals and supporting them. You're not stuck where you are, there's a great community of healthcare practitioners out there who want to support you.”
Although Boyd’s Pharmasave is known as a queer-friendly pharmacy, Richard says, “that's one aspect of who we are and what our pharmacy strives to accomplish, but when you pull it back, we're a pharmacy for everybody. We're a pharmacy that serves every single person no matter who they are or what they identify as.”
